The Times & Cuba (Contd.)

Since Cuba's Fidel Castro went to power 14 months ago, the editorial page of the New York Times has watched his low jinks with monumental forbearance, urging that Castro get a chance to prove his good intentions. "If you are a newspaperman of responsibility," said one Timesman, "you don't rush into print immediately; you weigh the consequences." A major weigher of Cuban consequences for the Times was Editorial Writer Herbert L. Matthews (TIME, July 27), a good friend of Castro and ranking U.S. newspaper apologist for the Castro regime. "Youth," explained Matthews, writing off the excesses of the Castro government, "must sow its wild oats."

But by last week the Times had plainly decided that it was past time for Castro to grow up. With a vehemence rare for its editorials, the Times took dead aim on Castro's shrill accusation that the U.S. had sabotaged an ammunition ship that blew up in Havana harbor. Castro's "outrageous charge," which whipped up "the passions and hatreds of his people," said the Times, "was paranoia raised to the level of national policy. Certainly the irresponsible and provocative behavior of the Castro regime in recent days plays directly into the hands of Cuba's enemies in this country . . . As a great power, this nation must be slow to anger and must show great patience, but if the Castro regime continues on its present paranoid course the Cuban people could become the victims of their leaders' mistakes."

As it happened, Herb Matthews was on vacation last week; indeed he was in Cuba being greeted by Castro cohorts.

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