interview with Fidel Castro appeared in the December, 1967, issue of War/Peace, published in New York. It was granted in October to Herbert Matthews, veteran reporter, who recently retired from the New York Times. The discus-— sion included Cuban agriculture, relations with the United States and the Soviet Union, and the death of Che Guevara.
Matthews was the first reporter to interview Castro in the Sierra Maestra, in 1957, during the revolution. They have met a number of times since. This time it was on a country road east of Havana. Matthews described Fidel:
"Castro's enthusiasm and sanguine nature are as fresh and strong as they were in his youth and the early stages of the revolution. He is in splendid shape -literally -- no fat around his middle now, strong, straight, not a grey hair in his beard or on his head and not a sign of receding hair although he is now 41 years old.
Castro talked about the expansion of Cuban agriculture:
"We are planting coffee bushes and citrus trees everywhere....In the 1970's we are going to have so much coffee and fruit that we will give it free to people -- and sugar, too. Just because they get it free will not mean that they will consume much more than they need."
Matthews argued that money incentives were necessary to stimulate production. Fidel replied:
"It will take a long time, but we
do not believe in the materialistic con-
cepts of capitalism or other types of con-
munism in which money is the incentive.
Men live for more things than money....
They must be given dignity, and in return
must learn that their work is a contribu-
tion to the good of all the people and
the state. This is true Marxism-Leninism
as we see it, but it is not communism as
it is practiced in Russia, Eastern Europe
or China."
Matthews pointed to the fact that
the Soviet Union and many of the Eastern
European countries "were seeking commer-
cial accords in Latin America."
"We consider this to be a lack of
socialist solidarity," Castro said. "They
should not be helping governments that
are trying to destroy us."
Matthews continued:
"I remarked that this indicated
that Russia and East Europe did not agree
with Cuban policies in Latin America,
especially the guerrilla campaigns.
"'Yes,' he answered wryly, ‘it
does indicate just that.'"
Che Guevara was killed while Mat-
thews was in Cuba. He writes that "Gue-
vara's death was a profound personal trag-
edy for Castro, who always had the great-
est affection and admiration for Che --
who, incidentally, reciprocated the feel-
ing....they never quarreled and always
kept closely in touch, within the limits
possible in recent years while Ché was in
Bolivia."