First Impressions

It would be foolish to try to summarize the feelings that Fidel Castro left behind him on his visit and speech here. His personal magnetism and idealism--whether or not one thinks they were inspiring--are the rare and precious gift of a national figure. And if he is "drunk" with anything, it is popularity, not power.

But Cuba will bear careful watching in the months ahead. It remains to be seen whether Castro can control the forces he has let loose (executions continue with increased zeal and with new capital crimes invented all the time) and, equally important, whether he can institute programs for economic and social reform which will keep him in and Communists out of power. Observers have pointed out that Cuba could prove "another Iraq," with revolution by pro-Western forces proving merely the prologue to inceased Communist control.

One certainly hopes that Castro will be successful in running a government with humanismo and perhaps, constitutionalism, for it foundation. Power may, in his own words, "be a sacrifice"--but if it is not one which he himself is willing to make intelligently, others will certainly make it for him.