Monday, May. 19, 1975
And Now, Baseball Diplomacy?
For twelve years, Fidel Castro's Cuba has been out in the cold--banished from the councils of its hemispheric neighbors in the Organization of American States, and the victim of a formal diplomatic and economic embargo imposed by the U.S. and the rest of Latin America. Or so it has been in theory. In practice, ten countries, including Venezuela, Colombia and Argentina, have resumed diplomatic relations with the Western Hemisphere's only Communist government. Despite the embargo, trade between Cuba and OAS nations is growing rapidly, and a number of foreign subsidiaries of American firms participated in a Mexican-sponsored trade fair in Havana in March. As one Mexican foreign officer put it last week: "The return of Cuba from years of isolation is a, fait accompli."
Not quite. Washington is not yet prepared to lift the embargo, although pressures have been mounting within both the State Department and Congress for normalizing American-Cuban relations. Last week Senator George McGovern, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, flew to Cuba for a four-day visit. The former Democratic presidential nominee was the third Senator to make a factfinding visit to Cuba in the past eight months.* He went, as he put it, "to see for myself what the Cubans have accomplished in their system. I'm going to try to learn. I want to see what they're doing in health, education and agriculture. I want to see what they're doing in the political field."
McGovern's timing was apt. It came right before the opening of the OAS foreign ministers' meeting in Washington last week. The Cuba issue was not on the group's formal agenda, but Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said he thinks that the OAS has reached a "general understanding" on a formula for ending the trade and diplomatic embargo. At the same time, two congressional subcommittees opened joint hearings aimed at proposing new legislation that could lift the economic embargo.
Popular Refrain. Castro has clearly indicated his willingness to make concessions in order to improve relations with the U.S. In February 1973, he signed an agreement with Washington that provided for the prosecution or extradition of hijackers, which virtually eliminated a wave of hijackings to Cuba. In recent months, he has also acted to restore free elections and a measure of democratic rule to Cuba. Castro's failure to hold free elections had become a major preoccupation of Cuba's 9 million people, as well as a popular refrain among foreign critics of the Cuban revolution. Last week Granma, the official Communist Party organ, published a draft of a proposed new constitution, which provides for an elected National Assembly; it is expected to be submitted to a public referendum later this year.
Accompanied by 30 U.S. newsmen, including TIME Washington Correspondent Jerry Hannifin, McGovern and his wife Eleanor were given an extensive whirlwind tour of educational, health and agricultural facilities developed during the Castro regime. Cabled Hannifin: "Amiable, wisecracking and radiating charisma and confidence, Castro as usual turned up unexpectedly and unannounced, at a state agricultural farm managed by his half-brother Ramon. There he took the McGoverns in tow, riding around in his Russian-built command car (with a special rack for his Kalashnikov rifle).
"They went first to a milking station, where Castro expounded knowledgeably on cattle stock and breeding. He popped in for ice-cream cones for the entourage at a dairy station, announcing expansively: 'They're at government expense.' Then he led everybody into the Santa Clara Rum Co. warehouse, and supervised the sampling of 100-proof rum. McGovern barely sipped the stuff and puckered up. 'Don't light a match,' cautioned Fidel cheerfully. 'The place will blow up.'
"Back in Havana that night, a friendly and relaxed Castro held a wide-open press conference in the book-lined library of the Palacio de la RevoluciOn. At times he spoke so softly as to be barely audible, but his message was clear: Cuba is prepared to move immediately toward normalization of relations with the U.S. Nonetheless, he could not conceal his disappointment that Washington had not responded to his signing of the hijacking agreement with 'a reciprocal gesture' of its own. 'We wish friendship,' he declared with obvious sincerity. 'We belong to two different worlds, but we are neighbors. One way or another we owe it to ourselves to live in peace.' "
Sport Exchange. Castro also said that 1) former President Nixon had "a personal hostility against Cuba," but that President Ford does not; 2) the CIA had organized and subsidized numerous assassination plots against him; 3) it would have been "absurd, irresponsible, crazy--and a very dangerous measure" for Cuba to have plotted the assassination of John F. Kennedy, as some theorists have suggested; 4) the OAS, "which has had a sad role as an instrument of U.S. domination," was no longer trustworthy or useful.
At his own press conference in Havana the next day, McGovern, visibly worn from a post-midnight Castro-conducted tour of the city, proposed that one starting point for bettering relations might be an exchange of baseball and basketball teams between the two countries--a suggestion the Cuban Premier immediately embraced. Added McGovern: "The embargo is foolish and self-defeating. The sooner we lift it the better. The next move where Cuba is concerned is up to the U.S." At week's end White House officials said that they welcomed Castro's conciliatory remarks, but that a formal lifting of diplomatic and trade curbs would have to await action by the OAS.
* Republican Jacob Javits of New York and Rhode Island Democrat Claiborne Pell visited Cuba last September. Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy is planning to go in June.
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