-DATE-
19600930
-YEAR-
1960
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
INTERVIEW
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
CASTRO SPEAKS ON 'MEET THE PRESS' PROGRAM
-PLACE-
HAVANA
-SOURCE-
HAVANA, CMP TELEVISION
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19600930
-TEXT-
CASTRO SPEAKS ON 'MEET THE PRESS' PROGRAM

Havana, CMP Television Network, Sept. 30, 1960, 0545 GMT--F

(Editor's Note:  While the "Ante la Prensa" program was in progress, Fidel
Castro suddenly appeared on the program and joined in the discussion)

(Summary of Fidel Castro's contribution)  The U.S. Embassy request that the
U.S. citizens living in Cuba leave the country is an advice and not an
order and it is possible that many U.S. citizens will not leave Cuba
because they know that they have been treated respectfully.  The thing is
this:  If the U.S. citizens come here to set up radios and listening
devices to obtain information--open espionage--certainly these gentlemen
can not stay here.

I remember that on one occasion we explained that our nationalization laws
would not affect the individual North Americans.  It is not our intention
to interfere with the North Americans having a modest amount of property
here.  We respect the North Americans living here and this is the reason we
condemn the attitude of the North Americans toward the Cubans living in the
United States.  Certainly, if the North Americans come to spy, then they
will be imprisoned and even be shot.  We can not permit espionage in our
country.

Officials of the U.S. Embassy have been caught conspiring here and we have
proof of it.  We have Hemingway here, for instance.  What problems can
Hemingway have with us?  We are visited by many distinguished North
Americans and they never have any trouble with us.  The North Americans who
come as tourists or who reside here will have no trouble with our
revolution, even those who own a small property will not be bothered.

This (U.S. Embassy warning?) is another insidious campaign by means of
which imperialism is trying to aggravate the relations between the two
countries.  The egoism and the discrimination that prevail in the United
States do not exist here.  The Cubans go to New York to seek work, while
the North Americans who live here do so because they like it here.  The
imperialists are hysterical and they can not free themselves of that
feeling.  They have created it; it is like an epidemic which they can not
control.  They can not be convinced that they have to face realities.  They
are the victims of the hysteria they have been creating.  They have done
nothing else but commit errors with us with completely negative results for
them.  For instance, they confined us to Manhattan Island, they refused us
a hotel, and so forth.

Naturally, the world is anxious to know what kind of country the United
States is and what kind of people are the Cubans to have produced such
hysteria in the heart of the empire.  The blows against the Cubans by the
police; driving their horses against the crowd--it reminded me of Hitler's
gestapo.  This is the reactionary process that is leading that system
toward fascism.

(Castro refers to UPI item saying that the U.S. Government will close the
Nicaro Nickel Plant in Cuba because of the confiscatory taxes imposed on
it.)  The U.S.  Government sent a note to our Labor Ministry informing him
that it was thinking of closing down the nickel plant within 30 days of the
communications.  They have been exporting nickel without paying any taxes
on it.  In order not to paralyze the plant, we told them that we were
disposed either to discuss the purchase of the plant, or to find some
formula to solve the problem.  We were discussing the matter with them.  If
the material is so strategic and if they need it so badly, let them pay the
tax, which is a matter of 25 percent of the value of the export.  They
spend more than a million dollars in espionage; they spend more than 40
billion dollars in arms.  Yet here they are exploiting our nickel mine and
they will not pay anything for it.  They say that a 25-percent tax is
confiscatory.  If they do not want to discuss the matter, if they do not
want to pay the tax; if they wish to shut down the plant, well, let them do
so.

We wish to say to the Nicaro workers not to worry.  We also wish to tell
them to careful.  We want no sabotage; we want no damage to the machinery;
we want no stealing of equipment. the workers must be careful that nothing
happens to the plant.  At any rate, today's note (from the U.S.
Government?) said they were disposed to continue the discussions.  Well, if
they are, we are, too.  Nickel is very important to the world.  The
Canadians also have nickel mines and now the Canadians are going to control
the nickel market.  We have good relations with the Canadians.  We are
ready to discuss the Nicaro matter with the United States--we are also a
nickel power (words indistinct).

And in the United Nations the world learned that Cuban problems are the
problems of the world.  A great battle for peace and disarmament is being
wage in the United Nations.  All the people of the world are worried about
peace because a war would mean an atomic war.  The underdeveloped countries
know that as long as the arms race is on, there is less possibility for
thee development of their countries.  The moment that Eisenhower should
become interested or speak about a program of economic development in the
underdeveloped countries, he would be in conflict with the monopolies which
need these countries in order to invest their money in them.  This is their
philosophy; money in the American society means power.  The money they get
from exploiting people, they invest wherever they can find the cheapest
labor or wherever they can earn the most profit.  The U.S. monopolies have
been taking over the entire economic resources of the nation for years now.

Eisenhower can not divorce himself from the monopolies.  The wish of the
underdeveloped countries to be helped by the highly developed countries can
never be achieved as long as the latter spend 100 billion dollars in arms
each year.  If, say, the U.S. armament program could be reduced by only 10
percent, the U.S. people would benefit from it because they would have to
pay less taxes.

Disarmament would suit the USSR very well because it means that is could
immediately raise the standard of living of its people and it could also
give more help to the underdeveloped countries.  This is why the
underdeveloped countries want disarmament.  This there opportunity.  The
imperialist countries do not want disarmament.  Eisenhower never spoke
about it.  He spoke about control, outer space, and so forth, but he said
nothing about disarmament.  He said nothing about helping the
underdeveloped countries.  He said nothing about the colonies.

The U.S. position in the United States is weak because it has no
arguments; it can defend nothing there.  If it has no arguments, it has no
reasons and it stands naked there.  It has a mechanical majority simply
by controlling the delegations.  The U.S. delegation would sit there in the
United Nations and watch what the other delegations did; maybe it would
not applaud a speaker, but it watched to see if the delegations they
control did applaud.  It is a system of terror.  The Government of the
United States can not side with anyone (decent?).  It has to be on the
side of Franco, Chiang Kai-shek, the German and Japanese militarists, in
short, on the side of the most reactionary, exploiting, immoral, thieving
people of the world.

(Opinion of Khrushchev) My impression is that he is a very humane,
pleasant, and respectful man. I am sure that if Khrushchev spent six months
in the United States, he would receive more votes than either Kennedy or
Nixon. He has a great sense of humor, and besides, he reasons. Khrushchev
is a great grandfather and still is very energetic; he has great
confidence in himself. He is simply extraordinary. He is surely coming to
Cuba to visit us. He is very sympathetic toward the Cuban revolution.
Nkrumah also is coming; Nasir comes next March. Nkrumah may possibly come
at the end of this year.

(Castro returns to the subject of the Cubans living in New York:) What I
saw there reminded me of nazism.  The same policemen who beat the Cubans
would then sit down to gamble.  Gambling is an institution there.  They
respect no one and nothing.  We have a great obligation, a great duty
toward the Cubans living there: Their return home so they will be cared for
in every way.  It is painful for me to see the good Cubans persecuted,
while the traitors and murderers are recompensed and protected.

The Negroes in the United States constitute the most politically advanced
group in the country.  It is an oppressed and mistreated group.  As a
matter of fact, not a single inhabitant of Harlem believes the imperialist
propaganda.  Moreover, they have great importance because the African
countries are becoming more important in the world and any repression
against the U.S.  Negroes will be condemned by the Afro-Asian countries.
We are thinking of presenting a motion in the United Nations against the
racial segregation in the United States.

(In reference to the U.S. intellectuals supporting Castro:)  They are
indeed very brave people because they defy the power of the press, money,
and repression.  They are extraordinary people who act in accordance with
the dictate of their conscience.  The U.S. people are powerless to act.
The two candidates are political cowards and hypocrites.  They are
incapable of saying the truth.  If they make a mistake, they will not
correct themselves.

Cyrus Easton is a very interesting person.  He spoke frankly and in a
friendly manner.  He said that he and a group of people are coming to Cuba
and they are ready to help.  He said that the next time we went to the
United States he would invite us to visit his home.  He has his own opinion
on things.  They can not call him a communist because he is a millionaire.
He is a friend of Khrushchev.  There are many extraordinary people in the
United States; there are many revolutionary, progressive, and
anti-imperialist people among the U.S. intellectuals but they can not
express themselves or act because they are suffocated by the deluge of
false publicity prevailing in the United States.

(Back to Kennedy and Nixon:)  They are both young, beardless men.  They are
ignorant, illiterate, and cowards.  They look like two toys of the great
vested interests.  We may have not swallowed the shark in the United States
but we certainly gave him a good bite.

(Invasion of Cuba:) I think that the militia is going to have the chance of
liquidating every group of counterrevolutionaries that invades us.  The
(imperialists) are going to make the mistake of embarking the groups that
are to invade us.  At one time they were thinking of seizing the Isle of
Pines but it seems that they have lost interest in it because it is a
little difficult to take.  There is also the alternative of some country,
say Guatemala, provoking us into war.  If any of those puppets should
declare war on us, well, we shall just reply to them with a "boo."  They
have been creating an atmosphere of hysteria over the Caimanera Naval Base.
We have always made the mistake of underestimating the Cuban people and
revolution.  They believe that the revolution is incapable, it can not
fight.  They are going to try it.  Those camps that they are organizing in
different countries to attack us, do you know what is going to happen.  We
are well provided with arms, too.  We are not interested in their weapons
because we shall take them away from them along with their sport jackets.
That policy of preparing groups, recruiting mercenaries, arming them, it is
just a way of deceiving the mercenaries.  They tell them that the marines
will (support them), that there will be a provisional government.  They
deceive them.  The only thing that encourages the counterrevolutionary
elements is the Yankee support.  We must be ready for a long fight and we
must act with serenity.  We must be prepared now as were when we went to
the Sierra.  We did not know how long we would have to fight then but we
were mentally prepared for anything.

(Portion indistinct)  We have organized the militia for a frontal battle;
we must organize the people for the "underground" war.  They must be
organized to watch over the "underground" activity of imperialism.  We
shall have revolutionary vigilance committees on the entire island.
Everybody will serve in them:  Men, women, and children, especially the
children because they are very vigilent.

-END-