Sympathy & Dismay

From the moment the first anti-Castro rebel set foot on Cuban soil last week, it was inevitable that there would be shouts and shoving, mostly against the U.S. So, right on schedule, it came to pass. In Moscow, well-organized throngs marched on the U.S. embassy to toss inkpots and rocks; they were easily kept from getting really riotous by a phalanx of Soviet militiamen. In Rio de Janeiro, Bogota, La Paz, Caracas, Mexico City and Buenos Aires, unruly mobs of students and workers milled in the streets and battled with police and one another. In Tokyo, left-wing students and Communists stormed around the U.S. embassy. In Egypt, Nasser-organized squads of yelling youths tried to storm the U.S. mission in Cairo.

Yet, among friendly and neutralist nations who recognized the U.S.'s deep involvement in hemispheric security, the mood during those first hours was one of remarkable sympathy and understanding. The London Daily Express, often anti-American, cheered: "British people give their support to Kennedy." In Canada, the Calgary Herald wrote: "The United States has shown the utmost forbearance toward that unfortunate country ever since it fell into the hands of the Castro gang." Said Rio de Janeiro's O Jornal: "This invasion is the beginning of the movement to restore to democracy the Cuban revolution, betrayed by Fidel Castro and his Communist gang." Remarked a high-ranking Venezuelan official: "Kennedy is not crazy or stupid. Every country has the right to give its sympathy to whomever it wants and to help whomever it wishes." Reflecting the thoughts of most of his colleagues, an Indian Cabinet minister said to a U.S. newsman: "We realize that you have to take certain actions for your own security, but we hope you hurry up and get it over with."

But as the Cuban invasion fell apart, the sympathy and understanding gave way to dismay and plain disgust. "Bad show," said the London Daily Mail--"a shocking blow to American prestige." British cartoonists smirked in print. Said a saddened government official in Bogota: "The United States should not have allowed the invasion to start unless the chances of success were good." And Masaji Inoue, 31, a Tokyo office worker, mirrored the feeling of much of the free world: "America seems to have messed things up again."

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