CASTRO'S CUBA
SIR,—S0 Mary Mackintosh considers my description of Cuban economic chaos a 'shabby distortion of fact,' and would have us blame it all on Uncle Sam. It is really remarkable bow 'progressives,' with their continual somersaults, shifting ground and double ,tandards, should be in such a continual hurry to :.:cuse others of dishonesty. She appears neither to nave read my article through, nor to be conversant with admissions in the Cuban Communist press itself.
While some of Cuba's economic difficulties can be attributed to the rupture of US-Cuban economic relations, others cannot conceivably be. For example, the uprooting of nearly a third of the sugar-cane plantations in order to 'abolish mono- culture' without considering that Cuba would need more sugar exports rather than less to finance development programmes, and without serious preparations to put the land to other uses. There was the replacement of trained managerial and tech- nical staff by completely unqualified party cadres. Galloping inflation was caused by feckless creation of new money out of all proportion to production, and by arbitrary wage increases in the early months. Agricultural production was depressed by heavy- handed, doctrinaire and arrogant treatment of big and small farmers alike, underpayment of agricul- tural labourers, etc. Over-slaughtering of breeding and milk herds was actively encouraged during the first year to provide cheap meat, with obvious results. Much of this has since been admitted and criticised in the Cuban Communist press and speeches—clippings on request Nor is there much point in blaming US refusal to buy Cuban sugar so long as Cuba, far from having unsold sugar in its warehouses, is unable to meet its con- tracts with other countries in full, and while its leaders claim that the terms on which China and Russia buy from them are far more lucrative than US terms past and present.
• As for US economic policies towards Cuba. How- ever much one may disapprove of US actions—on grounds of morality or expediency—one cannot honestly deny that they were the direct and predic- table result of Castro's policies towards the US. Castro, his brother, Guevara, Dorticos and other leading members of the regime showed quite early that they were well aware of where their policies were leading, and welcomed the outcome for a variety of reasons. So there is no point now in treat- ing US reactions as though they were an Act of God.
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