Cuba Group Calls Ptashne 'Dissident'

The Citizens Committee for a Free Cuba, a right-wing organization composed of high military figures, business executives, and noted academicians, has cited Mark Ptashne, professor of Molecular Biology at Harvard, as being one of many "influential dissidents" who have visited Cuba during the 1960's to learn ways of inciting revolution in the U. S.

The committee, an American organization based in Miami, reported in the Dec. 1970 issue of its newsletter that Ptashne, along with Tom Hayden, Dave Dellinger, and other American radicals, attended a cultural congress in Havana in Feb. 1968.

Paul D. Bethel, editor of the newsletter and executive director of the committee, claimed yesterday that the main purpose of the congress was to "plan revolution in Latin America and instigate student strikes in the U. S."

The congress, which was never investigated by the U. S. Government, was called to examine the problems of underdeveloped countries, and attracted scientists, artists, and intellectuals from numerous nations, including North Korea, Cambodia, Chile and France.

Ptashne emphatically denied Bethel's charges. According to Ptashne, the conference involved "a discussion of health, transport, and communication facilities in the underdeveloped countries. To say that there was any planning for violent revolution anywhere is ridiculous."

Another man who attended the conference, Dr. Roy John, professor of Psychiatry at New York Medical College, corroborated Ptashne's story. "The conference was concerned exclusively with studying the technical problems encountered by the Third World. The committee's charges about plotting revolution are absolute nonsense," John said yesterday.

The committee, which includes such prominent Americans as Dr. Edward Teller, inventor of the hydrogen bomb, and Clare Boothe Luce, widow of the publishing magnate, is convinced that Cuba was a launching pad for the student insurrections and black rebellions which plagued the U. S. during the 1960's.

Ptashne was recently involved in another incident relating to his Cuban activities. The N. Y. office of the U. S. Cuba Health Exchange, of which Ptashne is a sponsor, was bombed on March 30, causing heavy damages to medical supplies but no injuries.

Subsequently, an organization identifying itself as the Cuban Secret Government claimed responsibility for the bombing and sent letters to the health committee's sponsors, ordering them to resign, or else face further violent actions.

Ptashne appeared unconcerned about the whole affair. "I worried about the bombing for one day." he said, "but you can't let these things bother you for too long."