First question at this evening’s ostensible debate—from a Jorge Ramos—had to do with how one or the other would deal with Cuba under Raul. There was agreement on vagaries like liberty and freedom for the Cuban people before either candidate would enter into diplomatic relations. There was minimal mention (actually none) of the damage the U.S. has been wreaking on Cuba for about half a century. Not that parties to this evening’s debate have ever actually asked the Cuban people themselves what they might think about anything. But no matter, since for all candidates the “Cuban people” reside only in and around Miami, Florida. For all presidential candidates and most propagandized Americans, only Castros and political prisoners remain on the island called Cuba (where Guantanamo is located).

(They’ve not asked us either about what we might think about our own country, but are always ready to speak for us in our name. For them, Americans do indeed reside within confines of U.S. borders, if only in well-to-do neighborhoods and in media. I’d love to be a fly on the wall when Wall Street pays the president-elect a visit. Even if Wall Street doesn’t, which they will, minority Republicans in Congress will block most all of president-elect’s proposals. So much for “change.”)

I couldn’t help but wonder if Obama and Clinton were talking about freedom FROM something, as opposed to freedom in the abstract; i.e., freedom FROM bankruptcy in the event an American develops a serious illness, or freedom to acquire an education like that all Cubans receive FREE of charge. Just to note two down-to-earth freedoms Cubans enjoy while Americans don’t.

Or did they mean only freedom to say whatever—kinda? For those out there being denied decent healthcare and an education, though certainly free to file for bankruptcy, remember that you can always eat your somewhat freer words (no doubt) for the nutritional content they contain. If any at all, more in Cuba, since Cubans on the whole are more literate than Americans. Thanks in no small part to “dictator” Fidel and bro, Raul, neither of whom brooked or would ever brook those who would return Cuba to another real-deal real dictator like Batista (who got there by coup in the first place) and Meyer Lansky too.

Granting Fidel some due for throwing out the bastards on behalf of poverty-stricken and illiterate Cubans, got to love him just a little. He outsmarted ten (?) U.S. presidents, not a one of whom ever led any kinda revolution at all, not even—rumor to the contrary—Ronnie Reagan, unless pretense to (abstract) freedom counts.

Mr. Scher, I was under the impression that Kennedy did not authorize the Bay of Pigs invasion. While he was aware that people were training in Panama and in Florida he was not fully aware of the extent of the invasion until the Bay of Pigs invaders found themselves completely outnumbered by Castro’s forces in and around the Bay of Pigs. The rebels made constant requests for air strikes from the US which Kennedy perhaps wisely refused.

I recall my father stating that if the rebels would have succeeded in vanquishing the Cuban militias we would have to send another invasion to liberate the liberators. I suppose he did not have much faith on the exiled rebels that landed in the Bay of Pigs.

My analysis after 48 years since the date that I left Cuba with my parents is that Fidel has been by far the most stable dictator in this hemisphere. He has done whatever he wanted to do whenever he wanted to do it and has used the US and the Cuban exiles to serve his own ends. Fidel is probably one of the most wealthy people in the world and probably also the most bitter. Perhaps this is the reason why his intestines are slowly disintegrating. He has done a great deal of harm to many people including his own family. His sordid life is coming to an end that he truly deserves.

Robert Sheer is ignorant of some of the facts or is misrepresenting the Bay of Pigs Fiasco.  Kennedy got conned by the CIA and some advisors with their own agenda.  The whole operation was created during the Eisenhower Administration and was rehearsed for almost a year before Kennedy was elected. A double agent at CIA leaked it to Castro and when the going got tough, Kennedy chickened out and called off the air support that may have saved the day but would have blown CIA cover. Corporate America drove that operation just like it drove Vietnam and is now driving Iraq. Eisenhower had it right when he warned us to beware of the military-industrial complex, but his Administration was in charge when the Bay of Pigs fiasco was created. If there is no enemy readily at hand, you must create one!

Over 25 years ago, living in India, where a so-called Marxist government began running the state of West Bengal since the mid-1970s- I had highly negative views of communism (especially the Indian versions of it- the type my father, who spent time in British prison as a fighter for India’s freedom, absolutely abhorred), and, rather naively in retrospect, of socialism as well by association.

Looking back, I realize that the Anglo-American propaganda machine is one of Mankind’s most spectacular inventions. People in colonized and formerly brutalized countries throughout the world, and throughout modern history, are fed a regular ration (an overdose, actually) of the benevolence and greatness of this “democratic” and value-based Western capitalist model. This relentless propaganda, in conjunction of the looted and misbegotten wealth accumulated in the hands of their propaganda overlords (at the expense of millions, if not billions, of poor and helpless people the world over)- penetrates and permeates the psyche of people everywhere, especially the young.

As a result, we find many Indians, much like the Miami-Cubans that are rabidly anti-Castro, exhibit relentless contempt for their land and their people- and cannot praise the bright and shiny Land of the Free, Home of the Brave enough.

I have spent a long time in the U.S. now, and I must say that almost from the very beginning of my time here, my eyes were opened to the narrow, vicious bigotry of the capitalist world. I will never forget the racist and divisive efforts (led primarily by the R-party in the US Congress) in the early 1980s to not recognize MLK’s birthday as a national holiday. So much more has since followed right before my eyes- the Anglo-American alliance, working in cohesion, doing its utmost to undermine popular movements in nation after nation; propping up bogus, genocidal dictators across the world; torpedoing efforts of poorer nations to break out of debt by foisting oligarchic tools of profit such as the IMF and the World Bank; and, worst of all, in virtually every single year I can recall, DROPPING BOMBS AND WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION UPON ONE HAPLESS NATION AFTER ANOTHER. Quite a shining record, this- this bully nation, this greater by far extension of the bully in my fable.

I have equally witnessed the entrenched fabulist culture in the U.S. mistreating its own people- enormous prisons; limitless guns and other weapons of violence; disenfranchisement of minorities; relentless shoddy treatment of blacks and the poor; and, most lately, in these glorious Dubya years (which, thankfully, have done ONE good thing- exposed the deep corruption and murderous capacity of the American propaganda machine)- the decimating of the middle and working classes.

Placed against this self-appointed “Colossus,” as Mr. Scheer describes it (Goliath may be a slightly better description, however)- the valiant resistance offered by Fidel Castro and the people of Cuba, stands out as an exemplary model of human courage, determination and nobility. When the Machine does all it can to cripple you by embargoes and isolation- your failures cannot be judged at face value; your successes, on the other hand, are direct measures of your will to try and become a caring and fair-minded society. Until the world itself changes to one that cares for its poor and exploited, the odds will be stacked overwhelmingly against your success.

Compared with the belligerent US Presidents (except, to a certain extent, for Jimmy Carter), aided and propped by the mighty Machine- Fidel will live on in history as a David of absolutely legendary proportions. It does not surprise me the least that Ernest Hemingway, among so many other luminaries, befriended Fidel even as he led his rag-tag band of revolutionaries against Anglo-American and Euro-American tyranny. In the hall of human affairs, flaws and all, Fidel stands truly tall.

Quite disappointed in this short piece on Fidel, with a much more negative tone and less balanced view of the impact of the Cuban revolution than one might have expected from the author. For a still critical, brief, but more balanced and multifaceted view see, for example, this commentary on the Nation website at http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080303/kornbluh

From what I have read, Kennedy was being lied to about the situation in Vietnam.  He was given optimistic reports about conditions, while more accurate information was given to Johnson.  Kennedy also said privately that he wanted to bring all troops home after he was re-elected in 1964, which, of course, didn’t happen.  I can’t say he was killed because of his private position, but there is evidence.

I am a great admirer of Mr. Sheer’s writing.

Might I suggest that in future he adopt the modern pinyin system when citing Chinese words and names, and discard the antiquated Wade-Gilles system.

That is : Mao Zedong, rather than Mao Tze-Tong, etc.