Moral Authority

On the occasion of the recent death of the dictator of the last current Communist government, I thought we might want to take another look at our Opinion of March 23 2016. Think About It. Moral Authority. An ambitious young attorney and a charismatic young doctor aided and abetted by some of this nation’s most popular entertainers including Jack Paar led the way to one of the saddest eras of the world’s history. It might be called a “comedy of errors” if it hadn’t been so tragic for so many. Time after time well-intentioned people convince themselves that they should take action to heal the pain and bring justice for people they don’t know in situations they do not understand. It seems to be especially true of us (U.S.) whose president after all is “leader of the free world”. With a bow to Pete Seeger, “When will they ever learn”?

A popular song of the day was Sand in My Shoes, a musical call for return to the beaches, placid greenery and rhythmic music life of Cuba. Of course Fulgencio Batista (Who?) was ruling with an iron fist, accepting bribes from the Mafia and ordering execution of any objectors. But the fun in the sun continued until Fidel Castro and Che Guevera, a visiting revolutionary, used extreme persuasion for Batista to take his 300,000,000 1958 dollars and get out of the country.

The usual suspects added credibility to the coup by welcoming the Cuban saviors. Columnist and entertainment presenter Ed Sullivan raced to Cuba for an interview with the newly lauded leader at 2 A.M. January 11, 1959, hours before Face the Nation competed with the gushing and still got on the air first with their show. Ed set the tone with the best lines to and about Fidel. “You are in the real American tradition of George Washington.” “He will come up with the sort of democracy that America should have.” Castro thanked them by confiscating American agricultural investments and giving them to the poor while nationalizing private industry. 

Then-president Dwight D. Eisenhower recognized Castro’s Marxist views and declared that we would not buy Cuban Raw Materials and Sugar, an economic isolation that has remained. As John F. Kennedy assumed the presidency in 1961, Russia rewarded the island nation with nuclear missiles 90 miles off the sandy shores of Florida. The CIA planned a secret (reported to the United Nations by Cuba) attack in a beautiful bay on the island’s coast, the most embarrassing military adventure in U.S. history. Our ships floundered on the coral reefs and the would-be invaders were lost in the undeveloped swamps on shore, while the enemy planes attacked from the sky. Now the Kennedy brothers were really mad.

Fast forward. President Barrack Obama in his last year to frame a legacy, visiting Cuba was met by the arrest of church-goers and the warning to protesters not to meet with him. Meet he did and vowed to open trading ties with the state-owned businesses. He returned from Cuba  to the sound of constant coverage of a Belgian terrorist attack. There just seems to be no justice. We have no idea how our next President will react. What we can conclude, I think, is that unintended consequences will always rush in when unctuous leaders decide to assume their Moral Authority. Think About It.