MCCARTHYSIM LIVES ON

The Cold War is supposed to be over. The Soviet Union has disintegrated from a monolithic superpower into a collection of various semi-democratic states. No more nuclear missiles in Russia are targeted at U.S. cities. Presidents no longer speak ominously of the "Evil Empire," and popular movies no longer include Russian villians who speak in broken English.

Yet the spirit of inflexible and unreasonable anti-communism--the hysterical spirit of McCarthyism--seems to linger on. This week the Treasury Department threatened to slap a $250,000 fine on Tom Reeves, a professor at Roxbury Community College, if he did not give up the names of nine of his students who recently traveled to Cuba. Their trip to Castro-land was organized by Reeves and capped a semester's worth of study about Cuban economic and social trends.

Although the students did apply for Treasury Department permission to travel to Cuba, they were denied. Travel to Cuba has been restricted since 1963, and has been further limited after two planes flown by an anti-Castro exile group were shot down in March. Unliscened travel to Cuba is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

However, the students decided to take their trip in violation of the Treasury Department's rules. As one of them said anonymously, "This is supposed to be a democracy and [the restrictions] were the reaction you'd connect with a police state."

Reeves is determined to resist the government's strong-arm tactics. He has declared that he will go to jail before he sells out his students, claiming that the government is attempting to undermine academic freedom.

The government's anti-Cuban measures and restrictions are as foolish as they are hypocritical. Cuba poses absolutely no security threat to the U.S. and is not even sponsoring revolutions in other Third World nations. Although the U.S. would like to see Castro toppled and replaced by a more democratic, and more importantly, more capitalist government, official embargoes and covert C.I.A. sponsored sabotage haven't worked for more than 30 years. Why will these efforts be effective now? The laws that ban ordinary contact, such as visits, between Cubans and Americans serve no rational purpose.

Furthermore, although Fidel Castro is often described as a merciless dictator, he's a lot better than some leaders of some countries that the U.S. maintains friendly relations with, such as Indonesia. Or compare Cuba's progress on women's rights with Saudi Arabia's. Even Chinese totalitarians get better treatment than Fidel does.

Although President Clinton should reestablish friendly relations with Cuba, as he did with Vietnam, he will probably continue the status quo. There is no lobby for ending restrictions on Cuba, while many vocal Cuban-Americans, as well as cranky and aging cold warriors such as Jesse Helms, think that Clinton is too soft on Castro.

The worst part of this whole unfortunate situation is that millions of Americans are missing out on the unbeatable taste of fine Cuban cigars. I personally know how great Cuban cigars taste. My only hope is that the Treasury Department doesn't read this Dartboard.