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DOCUMENT  0173


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DOROTHY KILGALLEN
Against Fidel Castro 1959

REFERENCE:
UNTOLD STORY: FIDEL CASTRO
Vol 1 No. 2, September 1960 page 6

MEMO FROM THE PUBLISHER
The Editors of this magazine have tried to present all sides of Castro, the man, the rebel, the conqueror. We were impressed with his philosophy of reform, not so impressed with his carrying-out of justice.  We have grave misgivings concerning his reputed alliances with Russia.  But we feel that each reader must get the whole picture for himself before making any personal judgment.  And here it is, for the first time, the whole UNTOLD STORY of Cuba's Fidel Castro.

 

DOROTHY KILGALLEN
Sounds Off on Castro


These quotes taken from Miss Kilgallen's column make her one of the first reporters to come out against in print...

January 21, 1959
"Washington insiders expect Fidel Castro to be invited to visit the White House, on the advice of diplomats working on the old theory that if we don't make him love us, he may be wooed by the Russians.  Some of the international experts are terribly afraid U.S. press reaction to the Castro executions may have irked him to such an extent that only high level buttering up could repair the damage."

January 23, 1959
"Fidel Castro's closest aides are a little nervous over his long-range plans.  He wants to be another Simon Bolivar, liberating all Latin American countries under the role of dictators."

January 29, 1959
...Havana's famed gambling casinos will get permission to resume full scale operations within two weeks.  The same people who got the green light from Batista managed to reach Castro."

February 2, 1959
"There have been three minor revolutions within the Castro forces in the brief period of time since the rebel leader took over Cuba.  If Fidel doesn't call in some brainy experts to help him run the country and keep him from making boo-boos, he'll be out within the year."

February 6, 1959
"Gambler Frank Erickson returned to Havana last week, sure sign that for all his lofty talk, Fidel Castro wants ‘the boys' back running the casinos."

February 13,1959
"The new look at Havana night clubs: Castro soldiers sit at the ringside tables with machine guns at hand and grenades dangling from their uniforms."

March 2, 1959
"When Fidel Castro isn't engaged in giving out interviews for television variety shows in the U.S., he's busy restraining hot-headed brother Raul from staging mass executions in the Cuban provinces.  Fidel is a thorough-going conservative compared with Raul."

March 31, 1959
"Fidel Castro will not shave off his beard for his official visit to Washington.  He doesn't dare, because without it nobody would recognize him."

April 6, 1959
"Our government's intelligence reports on Cuba's Fidel Castro go back to the 1940's and aren't very pretty.  They list him as a Communist and a killer."

May 1, 1959
"Fidel Castro left New York in quite a pet over the local gazettes' treatment of his visit here.  He was particularly burned because one August newspaper gave his regime six months.  (Estimated cost to the taxpayers for his protection and other frills during his U.S. stay: $1,000,000.)"

April 29, 1959
"Despite what Fidel Castro says, leftists have taken control of information and communication systems in Cuba -including newspapers, radio and television."

July 15, 1959
"If our state department heads in Washington deny they're gravely worried over the explosive situation in Cuba and nearby Latin American countries, they're either giving out false information for reasons of their own or playing ostrich, which might prove to be a dangerous game.  U.S. intelligence is virtually non-existent if the government isn't aware that Russia already has bases in Cuba, and Russian pilots in uniform are strutting openly in Havana...Fidel Castro is the target for so many assassins they're apt to fall over each other in their efforts to get him.  The Mafia want to knock him off. So do the Batista sympathizers, of course, and then there are his own disillusioned rebels, just for starters.  He has machine guns and other ammunition mounted on every key rooftop near his base of operations, but the smart money doubts if any amount of precaution can change his status as a clay pigeon."

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