CUBA: There He Went Again.(Brief Article)

Students of the long careers of Jimmy Carter and Fidel Castro reacted glumly to the news that the former president would visit the dictator's island. Castro has a talent, honed over long practice, for bullying and snowing credulous guests. Carter has a talent for credulity, based on his vanity and self-righteousness.

The trip got off to a bad start, with the former president contradicting the State Department on its report that Castro has been developing biological weapons that could be used by terrorists. Why shouldn't Castro do such a thing? When Carter was president, his armies served as Hessians of the Soviet empire, garrisoning Communist regimes in Africa. Why not help friendly thugs now? But Carter chose to see no evil.

Once he was in Cuba, he did the celebrity-tourist things. He threw out the first pitch at a Cuban ballgame, under Fidel's watchful eye (Castro's link with baseball must be the most touted connection between sports and politics since French kings boasted about their skills as huntsmen). He toured an AIDS clinic. In his speech to the Cuban nation over Cuban TV, he flattered his hosts by parroting their propaganda about literacy and health care. When Castro took power, Cuba was the wealthiest nation in Latin America; reading and medicine would have become more widespread with increasing capitalist prosperity, without censorship and socialization. Carter also called for an end to the American trade ...