There is no excuse for making such a mistake but it is easy to see how I might have remembered Castro as having opposed the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Soviet government troops in 1968. He did not approve of the invasion at all. He said that if what he had been told was correct, then desperate measures could be excused. That “if” is central to both Castro’s thought and my mistake.

What Castro said was: “In short, we were convinced that the Czechoslovak regime was heading toward capitalism and was inexorably heading toward imperialism.” Later in his statement he says: “The essential point to be accepted, or not to be accepted, is whether the socialist camp could allow a political situation to develop which would lead to the breaking away of a socialist country, to its falling into the arms of imperialism.” Castro then answers, No.

So again Castro implies that his thinking depended upon his belief that Czechoslovakia was about to fall into the arms of imperialism, therefore, he continues, certain acts follow.

As events would unfold, within months the entire world saw that the Czechoslovak regime had not been about to fall into the arms of imperialism. Therefore, what Castro had been convinced of was a falsehood foisted off on him by the USSR and its Stalinist friends, and therefore his conclusion that an invasion might be justified was based on misinformation in his possession at the time.

Castro, moreover, had plenty to say about the USSR’s invasion that was not complimentary. Joseph Hansen devoted a chapter in his book, The Dynamics of the Cuban Revolution, New York, 1978, on the 1968 Czechoslovak events. A sample of his interpretation of Castro’s views at the time follows:

“Castro clearly was raising the most serious questions about the old Czechoslovak regime, and indirectly, about the USSR who had supported it. With all of Castro’s sharp criticisms, his challenge to the invasion’s legality and its legitimacy, and with his only proffered justification failing to hold water, it is easy to see that the Stalinists felt that Castro was not on their side. And that conclusion I accept: he was not on their side.” (Joseph Hansen)

N.W.