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Show I p deltind tlte Jdeacliined The rise in Soviet arms shipments ship-ments to Communist-dominated Cuba, only 90 miles off U.S. shores, has fostered grave new fears about that festering sore in the Americas that cannot be allowed to continue. It is clear that present U.S. policy toward Castro simply has not been adequate. It is also clear that politiking critics of present U.S. policy still have not offered practical alternatives. The least we can expect is that the rise in Soviet arms shipments ship-ments will force us to make realistic real-istic re-evaluations to our whole present Cuban policy and be more prepared for any eventuality eventual-ity than we were when the wall went up in Berlin. It is clear that the Communist arms shipments bode no good for us and the cause of freedom. This possibility that conditions condi-tions inside Communist-domin-t i o n s inside Communist-dominated Cuba may now be approaching ap-proaching the explosive point, has forced the U.S. to study the whole problem of Iron Curtain revolts, making us realize how utterly unprepared we are if other Hungarian rebellions should occur. It had been U.S. policy until the Hungarian rebellion to encourage en-courage if not actually incite open revolt against Communism Commun-ism throughout eastern Europe and the Soviet Union itself. The U.S. talked freely at one time of such revolts inside Russia Rus-sia itself when Stalin died, then when Khrushchev's regime crumbled and finally, just as a human reaction to intolerable conditions. Despite the scare headlines, they are hardly likely to be used for attacks even of the commando com-mando variety on the U.S. The Communist technicians and engineers may be building a complex system of missile bases aimed at the U.S. or the Panama Canal which would be used against us in any Third World War. But this should not surprise us. The Communists are zero-ing in on us with such mis-hile mis-hile bases all over the world and in a world in which advance warning of any enemy missile attack has all but vanished anyway, any-way, the slight time advantage a Cuban-based missile attack give would hardly seem worth the effort. The installation of complex electronic equipment in Cuba could indeed be designed to jam our missiles and cause them to go off course during the early launching stage at Cape Canaveral, Canav-eral, Florida. However, our own technicians and engineers should soon be able to detect any such electronic cold war and should be able to counteract interference. interfer-ence. Certainly, our Pentagon and ize that a chief aim of the Soviet arms shipments to Cuba is to step up anti-U.S. revolutionary activities in the Americas. Castro also appears to have However, the Hungarian revolt, re-volt, which could have hastened the collapse of the whole Communist Com-munist East European empire, led instead to the collapse of the whole idea of fostering revolt inside the Communist world, and a new accent was placed on trying to "co-exist" with Communism Com-munism rather than seek to destroy de-stroy it. While the Hungarian people shed their blood, the U.S. decided de-cided it was too risky to intervene inter-vene in any meaningful way in the revolt, that the Soviets would take offense, start a Third World War in reprisal, and Allied pres-vention pres-vention was intense. A new U.S. policy of aiding Communist regimes to prevent conditions from becoming intolerable intol-erable and thus barring revolt, was soon evolved. Our policy now is to step up U.S. economic aid to prop tottering Commu-sure Commu-sure on the U.S. against inter-nism inter-nism regimes, such as Poland's, which appear weakened by economic conditions. Even this has not been enough. The U.S. has been propping up the Castro regime by permitting humane shipments of food, medical supplies and virtually unrestricted trade wit our NATO allies without attempting any economic boycott. Still, the people peo-ple seethe. convinced the Soviets that the U.S. has not ruled out the possibility pos-sibility of invading Cuba to finish fin-ish the job the abortive C.I.A.-sponsored C.I.A.-sponsored Cuban exiles' invasion failed to complete. Cuba is to become an impregnable fortress, so that nothing except an all-out U.S. attack could topple the Castro regime. What really has the State Department De-partment and Pentagon policy planners concerned is the possibility pos-sibility that an internal Cuban people's revolt an the scale of the 1956 Hungarian uprising, could pose a more serious threat to the Castro dictatorship. At first blush, this would appear ap-pear to be what we are really hoping for. The U.S. would lose lives and prestige if it undertook the task of invading Cuba itself to topple Castro. But Washington knows that the real significance of the arms shipments to Cuba is to strengthen strength-en both the Communist militia's control of Cuba's own people so that a popular revolt would be utterly impossible, while at the same time strengthening Cuba against outside invasion. Any Cuban people's revolt would force the U.S. either to intervene actively or stand by helplessly while they are slaughtered slaugh-tered by the reinforced Communist Com-munist militia, just as the Hungarian Hun-garian revolt was doomed from the beginning. The U.S. totally ignored, except ex-cept to "deplore," the butchery of the Tibetan people by the Red Chinese. Yet, the Tibetans continue con-tinue along to fight a losing struggle against their Communist Commu-nist oppressors. The danger of open revolt has risen so since the erection of the Berlin wall in Communist East Berlin and Red East Germany that the U.S. has broadcast warnings to the East Germans that they would stand alone and "create complications" if they staged a Hungarian style rebellion. re-bellion. Still, evidence trickling out shows the danger to Herr Ulbricht's regime from internal revolt is growing, not diminishing. diminish-ing. Now, hunger and worsening economic conditions are stalking the whole Communist world in the wake of its colossal agricultural-industrial failures, especially especi-ally in Cuba, Red China, East Germany and Russia itself. Rotten farm planning, the space - arms - industrialization race and a reimposition of police terrorism are imposinb a new round of brutal oppression on the captive peoples. The danger of fullscale revolt, greater than the Hungarian people's, is rising everywhere, in all the key areas of the Communist world. If it does, what will the U.S. do? |