AT LEAST DURANTY BELIEVED IN WHAT HE WAS DOING:

Castro's American friend: a review of The Man Who Invented Fidel: Castro, Cuba, and Herbert L. Matthews of The New York Times By Anthony DePalma (KEN FRANKEL, 5/27/06, Globe and Mail)

Anthony DePalma's important and well-written book, The Man Who Invented Fidel, recounts the sad tale of the steady rise and meteoric fall of a shy New York City boy who had ambitions of being a scholar of Romance languages, but became a widely recognized New York Times foreign correspondent. Matthews reported from the front lines on many of the major events of the first half of the 20th century. His last assignment was covering the Cuban revolution. [...]

Because he was charismatic, well-spoken and dedicated to deposing a voraciously corrupt and ruthless dictator, Castro was the ideal subject for Matthews's emotional brand of reporting.

The articles caused a splash. Castro and Matthews each got what he wanted. As DePalma notes, Fidel benefited from an instant international image makeover from "a hot headed loser to a noble rogue with broad democratic ideals." Matthews reinforced this image in subsequent editorials and occasional news articles.

The most important point that Mr. DePalma conveys is that Fidel Castro was really secondary to Herbert Matthews's purposes--he want to the Sierra Maestra looking to create a man on horseback and would have been perfectly content to make one of whoever he found there. That does clear him of the charge of collaborating in a Communist revolution, but is more damning in its own way. Meanwhile, the notion that the corrupt Batista was also ruthless is fairly silly.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 29, 2006 5:55 PM