Invasion Jitters

All week long Havana rang with feverish alarms against "U.S. aggression" and "invasion." Not a day passed without stories that an anti-Castro invasion fleet had sailed from Guatemala, that D-day was coming, that advance forces had already landed in Oriente province.

As newspapers, radio and TV commentators beat the drums, the country went on a virtual war footing. The government recalled troops to barracks, ordered militiamen to assembly points, and deployed thousands of men along the fortified beaches on the south coast between the provinces of Pinar del Rio and Camagueey. Using the "threat to Cuba" as a whiplash to complete the country's Communization, Castro's government warned workers to get into the militia or be classified as "traitors or cowards."

Pennies, Not Pesos. The effect was somewhat different from what Castro in tended. Instead of rallying. Cubans jittered. Coins virtually disappeared from circulation, as citizens put their reliance on metal money rather than on National Bank Chief "Che" Guevara's autographed paper. Coffee vendors refused to sell 3-c- cups of coffee until customers produced exact change, and bus conductors had trouble providing change for riders. As many as 2,000 people waited outside the U.S. embassy all night to line up for visas in the morning; appointments were scheduled ahead to February 1962.

At night, Cubans listened to the anti-Castro broadcasts from U.S.-operated Radio Swan in the Caribbean and whispered among themselves that Castro militiamen had been found hanging from trees in the suburbs of Havana and Santi ago. Grocery stores reported a run on vinegar, as word spread that breathing through a vinegar-soaked cloth would counteract the effects of tear gas and other gases expected to be used when invasion starts.

Incident at Guantanamo? The most interesting word in the Castro vocabulary last week was "auto-provocation." To the U.S.. it sounded as if he might be getting ready to stage an incident, possibly at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo. Time and again he has raged against the base, said he would not attack it, then added: "But who doubts the base is capable of planning an auto-provocation?"

The U.S. State Department does not expect a serious attack on Guantanamo. But last week it called in reporters to make it clear all around that if Castro strikes, the U.S. will repulse him. Though Guantanamo itself is no longer vital to defense, its possession is important to U.S. treaty rights around the world. The Navy has plans to deal with every contingency, from an assault in force to sniping from the hills. If there is a march on the gates by women and children, the Navy will disperse them without guns; if Castro cuts off the water supply, the Navy has water tankers available.

At week's end, 1,450 Marines, who had been on training maneuvers with the fleet, landed at Guantanamo. The U.S. made it clear in advance of their arrival that they were there for a weekend's rest, not invasion. But that calm word seemed to have little effect. In the U.N. Steering Committee, Cuba's Foreign Minister Raul Roa shouted: "The invasion can occur within the next few hours." U.S. Delegate James Barco, passing over the fact that Castro had just grabbed another 164 U.S. firms, worth approximately $250 million, hastened to set him straight. "The U.S. has no plans or intentions to attack Cuba. Cuba need have no fear." The U.S. even took the unusual step of voting to bypass the OAS and discuss the Cuban charges of aggression in the U.N. itself.

Rockets for What? Such U.S. actions only seemed to increase the Cuban hysteria. Touring Russia. Carlos Franqui, editor of Castro's Revolucion, begged Khrushchev to repeat his promise of Russian rockets to protect Cuba. Said Khrushchev noncommittally: "I want that declaration to be, in effect, symbolic." Insisted Franqui: "Are the rockets ready?" The real question was: Ready for what?

As the Cuban cries of aggression dinned louder, the U.S. State Department injected another possibility: that Castro might be preparing an invasion of his own against some neighboring country. To the Organization of American States went a U.S. warning that thousands of tons of Communist arms had been recently unloaded in Cuba, "expanding rapidly its capacity to give armed support to the spread of its revolution to other parts of the Americas." The U.S. asked the OAS to investigate promptly.

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