So my grandfather served as a colonel in army intelligence for Latin America during World War II. And after the war he returned to journalism. And he was purely a newsman as far as I know. But he was a really good intelligence officer. And I wouldn’t know today in the year 2013 whether or not he had a double life. But I don’t think so.

Laura Galloway: My grandfather did this interview in 1959 and he actually died in January 1961. He was really deeply surprised by the fact that Castro became an overt communist. And he had not really anticipated that at the time. He thought that Batista was a terrible sadist and this would be a very positive change for Cuba. But things turned out very differently of course.

Fidel Castro: Perhaps they call you communist because you wrote an article favorable to the Cuban Revolution and they want to investigate you in the Senate of the United States.

Laura Galloway: What’s remarkable is at the end of the interview, and that’s when Fidel Castro actually asks somewhat of a rhetorical question about my grandfather. He says: maybe people will think that you’re a communist…?

Fidel Castro: We have other problems which are of more interest for us. If we can maintain friendly relations with the United States. I see no reason why conflicts can arise.

Clark Galloway: Well, it seems that there are no issues of whether or not the United States continues to occupy the base on the present terms.

Fidel Castro: There have been some minor conflicts arising from the fact that sailors always let them disembark, to go to Guantanamo for example. Of course, it was economically convenient because they spent money. But they were thousands of sailors and they were going to certain places for entertainment. And they did not know their way around well and would often come by the houses of decent people and knocked at any home. It is a problem. I am highly concerned about preventing even the slightest incident from happening. Do you understand?

Laura Galloway: What’s really fascinating about this tape are all the sounds that you can hear in the background. Matches being struck. Cigars being smoked. You can hear the ding of a typewriter in the background. And just a lot of ambient noise that lends color to what the moment in time actually looked like.

Fidel Castro: I have a lot of work. Because mine is an administrative function, but it is also a political one. I have to talk to the people, guide them, encourage them…

Clark Galloway: How are you going to put the Government’s matters in order? Would it be possible to delegate some of your responsibilities?

Laura Galloway: I’d actually never heard my grandfather’s voice before. So to hear his voice doing this interview was just absolutely incredible to me.

Laura Galloway: A few years ago, beneath piles and piles of articles and stories and letters that my grandfather had written, under the albums and more albums of calling cards from ambassadors and presidents. All of people that he had met and interviewed throughout his life. I found a single cassette tape that simply said “Galloway-slash-Castro.”

Fidel Castro: The Twenty-sixth of July Movement is a party of radical ideas, but it is not a Communist movement and it differs from communism in several respects. In a series of essential respects. Do you understand? And in the Twenty-sixth of July Movement there are men like Raul and like Guevara who are very much in agreement with my political thinking.

Clark Galloway: As you may have heard, rumor has it that your brother, Maj. Raul Castro, and Maj. Ernesto Guevara are communists or communist enthusiasts. Those are the rumors. I’d like you to comment on this.

Fidel Castro: …which is the ideology of social justice within the limits of the over-arching democracy, liberty and human rights, is the most beautiful thing that can be promised to a man.

Fidel Castro: The Cuban people things that no other social regime in the world can offer today. Do you understand? I have no fear at all of any other ideology. The ideology of the Twenty-sixth of July Movement…

Laura Galloway: My grandfather died before I was born, and this is my picture of him in my head. This photo has traveled with me to every city I’ve ever lived in, and has been in every office I’ve worked in, and in my house.

Fidel Castro: And if this Revolution falls, what we will have here in Cuba is a hell. Hell itself. Because by the time there will be a million, a million and a half people with no work, people who will not believe in anybody anymore, then it will be a chaos. Trust me, gentleman.

Laura Galloway: When I was a little girl growing up in Indiana, there was a photo of my grandfather sitting on a sofa with his tape recorder interviewing a man with a beard and a funny hat. And as I got older I came to understand that this was Fidel Castro that my grandfather was interviewing.

CLARK GALLOWAY: So, what are the changes you want to make in Cuba up next?

FIDEL CASTRO: Well, fundamentally the problem of Cuba is a problem of creation in the country more than one of change. It is as if we have been fenced in for many decades.

Our most serious problem [is] that population grows constantly and, by contrast, the sources of employment do not increase. And, to the same extent in which industry adopts new technology and needs fewer and fewer workers, our population grows, and we find ourselves in a vicious circle from which there is no escape –men who have no work and who, therefore, cannot consume. And [there is] an industry that cannot be developed if it does not have consumers.

We cannot compete with the European industry in machinery, in manufactured products; nor with the U.S. industry. Our industry has to be an industry of consumption –mainly of domestic consumption. And it is not possible to develop an industry unless you have buyers.

However, how is it possible to give work to the people by other means than by industrializing the country? Our big problem is the hundreds of thousands of men who are out of work.

CLARK GALLOWAY: What kind of industries? Which kind do you think of , for instance?

FIDEL CASTRO: Mainly, foodstuff industries, textile industries and also industries to produce manufactured products for nationwide consumption. Our industry cannot hope to compete, particularly with foreign industry; therefore it must be developed on the basis of domestic consumption; to produce the largest possible quantity of articles and goods to be consumed within the country.

CLARK GALLOWAY: Then, how much time do you think you will need to develop that program?

FIDEL CASTRO: First of all I have to tell you that our first step must be to create consumers. We ourselves have to create consumers. Today, [our goal is] to make possible that a considerable part of our people become consumers. Only from there you can develop the industry of our country. And then…

CLARK GALLOWAY: For that you need money…

FIDEL CASTRO: Well, yes, but no. We first need consumers. Even if we had capital to establish industries, if we do not have people who buy, that industry will not be able to develop. It would be anti-economic. The first issue is not to have mon… to have capital. The main problem is to have consumers for the industry. And then, have the capital to set those industries. But the essential point, the basics, is to have a population who consumes industrial products. And we are going to get that through the agrarian reform.

CLARK GALLOWAY: How much will such a program cost?

FIDEL CASTRO: Well, that depends, because you have to distinguish between the industrialization program and the public works program that should be carried out to meet many needs.

Any Cuban town, out of the 200 or 300 towns that are more or less important, has a series of pressing needs that never have been satisfied.

You go to the towns and they ask you for school centers, they ask for hospitals, they ask for sewers, they ask for street paving, they ask for waterworks, they ask for schools, they ask for public health, they ask for trucks to use in cleaning the streets, they ask for squares, they ask for marketplaces—buildings where they could sell their produce, and all kind of works. For instance, they ask you for water-purification plants.

They demand so much—I am making a census of all their needs. I have asked all the active citizens in each town to tell me what things do they need and in what order they would like to have the Government provide them. I estimate that, to meet all these needs, it will be necessary to invest at least 2 billion pesos in public works. To meet the needs in all these towns. The needs for roads, for highways …

CLARK GALLOWAY: Where will the money come from?

FIDEL CASTRO: Well, that money comes from within, from the increase in tax collection –from the increase in the Government’s income in the same measure in which the standard of living is raised. I think that, in three years, we shall have doubled our budgets.

CLARK GALLOWAY: Oh, really?

FIDEL CASTRO: Nowadays, already after two months there is a surplus of 40 million –no, of 25 million pesos as the result of the increase in tax collection. So, the capital for industries [will be] partly national and partly from abroad, foreign. Now, we do not want this capital to come in on the basis of … Basically, we want to have capital loaned to us so that we can invest it through the credit agencies of the country. Because if capital comes from abroad and is invested directly, we have to pay interest, which is the cost of capital, interest. We have to amortize the capital. And yet after we have amortized the borrowed capital, there is nothing left for ourselves. Do you understand?

CLARK GALLOWAY: Yes, of course.

FIDEL CASTRO: We want to have capital loaned to us. Then, we return the capital plus the interest. But by the time we had amortized the loaned capital, what is left remains here for us. We amortize the capital for ourselves, not for somebody else. Do you understand?

CLARK GALLOWAY: You do not want…

FIDEL CASTRO: Because we pay back the capital, return it, and therefore the capital remains here. Do you understand? Otherwise, we would have to amortize it one time, two times, ten times. We would have to keep on amortizing for the rest of our lives. Just like if you borrowed 100 pesos and you would have to be paying the 100 pesos back for the rest of your life. Do you understand? [Laughter] Plus interest.

CLARK GALLOWAY: Where would this capital come from?

FIDEL CASTRO: It could come from the United States, it could come from England, it could come from France, it could come from Germany.

CLARK GALLOWAY: … from governmental banks of these countries or from commercial banks?

FIDEL CASTRO: There seems to be an abundance of capital in the world at this moment, because we have received many offers of loans and investments. Many offers from elsewhere. Especially because they see that our Government is honest. And upon seeing that our Government is honest they feel great confidence. Besides, because they see that we have decided to repay the pending debts of the dictatorship. So, we have not refused to pay them.

CLARK GALLOWAY: Which countries do you receive money from?

FIDEL CASTRO: The United Sta… I want to explain to you, that [they are] many. The Government, the Batista dictatorship, incur in debt for 1.2 billion pesos . We could have denied it, because the Government was not legitimate. But we understood that this would unsettle too much the economy of the country. It was more convenient to accept the responsibility of that debt. That would create high confidence in those willing to invest money. If we do not neglect those debts, then everybody can be sure that they can invest here, that they can lend us, that nobody will neglect debts by any means, even if the Government fell. Do you understand?

CLARK GALLOWAY: Yes.

FIDEL CASTRO: Even if it changes, it does not matter. If there has been such a change now and we [accept] the debts…

CLARK GALLOWAY: What you want are loans, not stockholders.

FIDEL CASTRO: Well, it does not mean that it is an exclusivist policy. We prefer, we prefer to receive the loans and pay them back. To pay the capital back and the interest. That way, when we have amortized the capital, it remains here for us… when we cancel the debt the factories and the industries are left. The other way, we would be paying for those factories forever. And it would be a constant outflow of currency. You know that the currency issue is essential to every country nowadays.

CLARK GALLOWAY: Yes.

FIDEL CASTRO: A smart policy should be one that tends to receive the capitals, pays the price for that capital –which is the interest– returns the capital and in the end the factories, the industries, are left here to remain in the country.

CLARK GALLOWAY: Is it true that some of the North American firms in Cuba are going to be nationalized?

FIDEL CASTRO: Nothing has been said here about nationalization.

CLARK GALLOWAY: Actually?

FIDEL CASTRO: Yes, nothing has been said– is the gunshot of nine o’clock, do not worry. Yes, yes, there is… No, nothing has been said here about nationalization. We have not raised that question. We can revise some of the concessions made by the Batista dictatorship because they are onerous concessions and they are against the economy of the country.

We haven’t spoken here of nationalizations because our economic problems are different, they are fundamental, such as, for example, carrying out our agrarian reform and develop the country, industrially wise. As far as public services are concerned, they are diversified. For example, some of them are furnished by several companies and ourselves at different prices, different rates. This is a problem that we have to study and solve, but we haven’t raised the nationalization of any public service as a key issue.

CLARK GALLOWAY: Can you explain, in a few words, your agrarian reform program?

FIDEL CASTRO: The agrarian reform program is as follows: Here in Cuba we have about 200,000 –200 no, between 200,000 and 300,000 families who are farmers and who own no land. Those farmers work two or three months a year, during the sugar season only. They have no work for the rest of the year. They have no land to sow or to produce the most necessary goods for consumption. Many of those farmers come to the city looking for jobs, and they increase the number of unemployed people in the city. This rural population is who we have to try turn into consumers.

More than half of the country is rural, so we have to convert those farmers into consumers. Those farmers will never become consumers until they do not have land to produce goods. The agrarian reform will increase many times the purchasing power of the farmer, and it will be the base for the industrial development in Cuba. We think… There are the lands of the State and the private lands, and we think that there should be set a maximum limit to the farms devoted to each different kind of production.

CLARK GALLOWAY: For example, sugar?

FIDEL CASTRO: We are studying this matter. I am favorable to setting a limit on sugar lands as well. Now, that would be good for sugar factories because there has been a law for many years which prohibits sugar-mill owners and sugar factories from having cane land of their own. So what they did to evade the law was: They established a company which was the owner of the sugar factory, and another company which was the owner of the sugar-cane plantations, and it was the same thing; they evaded the law. An industrial company must be industrial and not agricultural and industrial at the same time.

The sugar factories cannot compete in the world market with a good price for sugar nowadays because of their high costs. It is very expensive because the sugar mills are obsolete. If the sugar mills tried to modernize with technology, to improve, the result would be that there would be too many workmen unemployed, or, they would have to work half the time a year. That is, it would create a serious social conflict.

The only way the sugar industry can be technologically improved is through the agrarian reform, which will draw off from that industry the excess of personnel who is demanding work. Do you understand? They have to modernize themselves through the agrarian reform.

What are they going to lose? They are not going to lose anything, because they are going to have the sugar cane to grind, more sugar cane to grind, and better conditions for improving their machinery.

Otherwise, there would be an eternal argument between an increasing number of workmen asking for work and an industry that has not progressed at all during the last 30 years, and an industry which cannot progress if is not improved. Thus, the agrarian reform does not mean any loss.

We will indemnify them for the land. If we have no cash –and we will probably not have enough to indemnify them for all that– we can indemnify them in bonds. Bonds which will have the guarantee of a honest Government, which can be sold on the market. Bonds with interest, at the shortest possible term. I am thinking today, unless people who are more expert than I am in this matter would differ from my opinion, that we could make the bonds run 10 or 15 years. These could be traded, and then we could ask the industrial businessmen, the sugar-mill owners, and the great producers of sugar cane and cattle to invest those bonds in industries, because we are willing to give all guarantees to industries, with the condition that they pay high wages.

CLARK GALLOWAY: And how much will it cost, the agrarian reform program?

FIDEL CASTRO: I cannot work it out exactly at this time. Because we would first have to decide on the maximum limit, the lands that would be segregated and their appraised value. But if we pay with bonds we can pay a better price than we could in cash. And yet the money that is received in bonds, bonds which are guaranteed by the Cuban state, they can be traded like those from BANDES and the National Bank have been. Cuban bonds are sold in the market and they are sold at good prices. By compensating them with bonds all that we are asking is that the indemnification received they invest in the industry here in the country. Do you understand? Then, what the big… the landowners have to do is to become industrial. Do you understand? And they can establish industries that will have an assured market. And that will mean the solution of the problem for the sugar factories. Because, I will tell you: do you think we can live in this hectic state of permanent conflict between corporations and workers? In a conflict that is getting worse. A conflict that is escalating.

CLARK GALLOWAY: Cuba depends to a great extent on its sugar exports. Do you think that this dependency should be reduced?

FIDEL CASTRO: Well, it is convenient for us to sell to the United States, and it is convenient for the United States to buy from us. Because it is also true that in the difficult times the United States has gone through it has always had a fantastic sugar produce in Cuba. It is in the interest of the United States that this source be preserved, because sugar is a basic good for the United States, and we can produce it cheaper here than they can there.

We could offer to the American people a cheaper price than today’s price. Do you understand? Yet the United States Government makes people pay a higher price because it is protecting certain sugar interests in that country. Land in the United States and produce wheat, it can produce other things that are subsidized. We could favor the American people in the future by selling them all the sugar they want, much cheaper than today.

Talk to the American people and tell them that we can if it is true that, on the one hand, United States policy benefits certain farmers with a completely artificial industry, we could benefit the whole American population by selling them sugar at a cheaper price than today’s. Americans like sweet things a lot, and we can offer them all they want and keep good relations.

Because, you see, the United States is such a rich country… so powerful industrially, agriculturally, that what they earn… what the trade with Cuba means economically in terms of money –well, it does not matter [woman: … they are waiting for you] It does not matter –in terms of money is a very small fraction of their great economic power, of their large wealth. It looks selfish to us that once we talk about our wish to produce rice, to produce [edible] oil in order to save us part of what we import, we are threatened and they say that they will not buy sugar from us. Because, ultimately, what the United States would lose in those trades is just a millionth of the United States wealth. Do you understand? It makes no sense to raise enmity with us, for 100 or 200 million pesos that would mean what we buy in foods.

We will always have to buy cars, radios, TV sets. We will always have to. But the United States does not depend on their trade with Cuba. At the same time, Cuba depends on the currency it can save to develop its industry. We don’t ask the United States to give away dollars to us. We are not saying to the United States: send us one billion pesos. With one billion pesos we solve our problems. We raise the question in terms of justice. If we do not defend our currency, if we do not develop the country industrially, where are we heading to? To a complete mess! If the Revolution does not make these laws, the Revolution will lose its authority. It will lose its morale, its reputation. And if this Revolution falls, what we will have here in Cuba is a hell. Hell itself. Because by the time there will be a million, a million and a half people with no work, people who will not believe in anybody anymore, then it will be a chaos. Trust me, gentleman.

We can start making an orderly, studied, planned revolution. I have often had to stand and tell the farmers not to occupy the land that way, because the land must be distributed in an orderly manner. We cannot make a large agricultural enterprise from the small, isolated farms, because it does not make sense economically. No, it would not yield at a low cost. We have to replace the large companies with large companies. That is to say, by gathering all farmers to have a large company as one, like having a corporation. And then by having them use equipment, expensive equipment, and use the best techniques in the world. Have you seen Bohemia nowadays? Bohemia has now launched an appeal for a fund for me to handle. Do you know what I will be into? Tractors. Everything about tractors and irrigation equipment, springs, everything. So then we will produce in Cuba under the best technical conditions possible in the world.

The most modern equipment in the world we are going to buy it for agriculture. As good as those which exist in the United States. And our land has an advantage over the land in the United States: it produces two to three crops a year because there is no cold. With fertilizers, with irrigation, we can produce more cheaply than the United States. For now, the United States produces corn cheaper than us. Half the price. [They produce] rice cheaper than us. And why is this? Even though they cannot harvest more than one crop of corn a year. Why is this? Because they produce with a very modern technique… at a very low cost. Well, we are going to get two crops with the same technique as the United States.

We are going to produce very cheaply. Do you understand? And all that money I am going to invest it in tractors. In tractors, in equipment, in irrigation and everything related. Then, in the countryside, we will produce through large farmer cooperatives. Cooperatives that will distribute the profits evenly. Now I have some already settled in lands that belonged to accomplices of Batista, Batista’s partners. I’ve made a cooperative and is going very well. Right there they have a cooperative of agricultural production and their consumer cooperative. They have their own store, the first one I ever did. And they had to set [prices] 20% more expensive, because it would otherwise ruin the small shops around.

CLARK GALLOWAY: Speaking about sugar, if the sugar sales in the United States dropped, this would affect Cuba a lot, wouldn’t it?

FIDEL CASTRO: Yes, I think it would affect it. Of course. But I do not see any reason why the sugar sales would drop. It would be unfair, for every time the United States has had a difficult situation, they had in Cuba a source of supply and of raw materials, and what the American soldiers like the most is sugar. Every soldier likes sugar the most. It is not convenient for the United States that the Cuban sugar industry is ruined. It is not convenient for them.

CLARK GALLOWAY: How do you feel about the trade between Cuba and the communist countries?

FIDEL CASTRO: Well, I think that we should sell to them if they buy from us. Because, what are we going to do if we have products left and they want to buy them? That’s what the United States does, and England and all the other countries.

CLARK GALLOWAY: So, do you see in this any possible danger for Cuba?

FIDEL CASTRO: In what sense?

CLARK GALLOWAY: … of infiltration or …

FIDEL CASTRO: There can be no danger if we do what Cubans want, if we provide social justice and solve the substantial material problems of all Cubans in a climate of liberty, of respect for individual rights, of freedom of the press and thought, of democracy, of liberty to elect their own Government.

The revolution that we are making offers the Cuban people things that no other social regime in the world can offer today. Do you understand?

I have no fear at all of any other ideology. The ideology of the Twenty-sixth of July Movement, which is the ideology of social justice within the limits of the over-arching democracy, liberty and human rights, is the most beautiful thing that can be promised to a man.

CLARK GALLOWAY: Sure.

FIDEL CASTRO: Why should we be frightened? We do not have to be afraid.

CLARK GALLOWAY: Do you know if the communist countries would offer Cuba the goods it needs to import?

FIDEL CASTRO: Well, I have not looked into that. I have not considered that possibility. And I have not considered it, honestly, because I have believed that we would keep on selling sugar to the United States, mainly. And we will continue to buy a lot from the United States. I have not thought about the other problem. If the other problem presents to me [smiling] I will have to look into it, don’t you think?

CLARK GALLOWAY: As a Prime Minister, you have an important work to do. How are you going to put in order the Government’s matters? Would it be possible to delegate some of your responsibilities?

FIDEL CASTRO: Well, you have seen that we have several ministers. They are very skilled. The Minister of Labour. The Minister of Economy. The Minister of Public Works. They are a number of colleagues who are really hard workers. And what I do, every day, I bring to them… if there is a loan offer for an industry project I sent it to the Minister of Economy, and I sent it to the Minister of Agriculture. Every day I delegate more and more work and bring it to them, and I consult them. I meet twice a week with them. And there we discuss at length. If I wanted to have less work… I wish I had less work. I have a lot of work. Because mine is an administrative function, but it is also a political one. I have to talk to the people, guide them, encourage them, tell them to calm down, to be patient. I am the one to control the problems with the people.

CLARK GALLOWAY: What is your position in regard to the United States base in Guantanamo?

FIDEL CASTRO: That is a problem that has not been discussed here. It has not been discussed. There have been some minor conflicts arising from the fact that sailors always let them disembark, to go to Guantanamo for example, they allowed them to go to Guantanamo every festive week. Of course, it was economically convenient because they spent money. But they were thousands of sailors and they were going to certain places for entertainment. And they did not know around well and would often come by the houses of decent people and knocked at any home. It is a problem. There is some conflict between them when they go on vacation, when they go off for the weekend, it created conflicts between them and the decent families. That many sailors would go wrong, drank, and got in a house. Those situations, at the time of Batista, caused no impact because everyone suffered these things quietly. But now, you understand, anything of the like causes a great impression, because people see the rectifying purpose of the Revolution, therefore they speak up about all that has been wrong, all they did not like. Do you understand? They explain it in a moment in which it can create resentment. I am highly concerned about preventing even the slightest incident from happening. Do you understand? Therefore, in regard to the visits, I am an advocate of waiting as much as possible, right? In places where there have been problems like Guantanamo, Santiago, well, I would like that we put all the efforts to be well organized, well ordered, so that visits could occur without frictions. Because there is no animosity in the people, no animosity against them, you know? But this is a moment in which any small incident can become of importance. Do you understand?

CLARK GALLOWAY: Well, it seems that there are no issues of whether or not the United States continues to occupy the base on the present terms.

FIDEL CASTRO: That demand has not arisen. We have other problems. We have other problems which are of more interest for us. We have economic and social problems. If we can maintain friendly relations with the United States –commercial, political, diplomatic– I see no reason why conflicts can arise.

CLARK GALLOWAY: Do you favor having Cuba serve as a base for military operations against the Dominican Republic or other countries?

FIDEL CASTRO: Well, I am going to tell you what I think about that. We have work to do here. [Laughter] We are planning a work. What worries me mainly –I am going to answer you with complete frankness– what worries me in these moments are the problems of Cuba. What interests me is the problems of Cuba and the work that we have to accomplish. All right, that is not to say that you could be so selfish as to regard with indifference the suffering of other people in Latin America.

Trujillo is a danger to Cuba. Trujillo is a danger to Latin America.

Trujillo agents murder their enemies outside the state. They murder their enemies, like Galide in the United States. They murder Requena in the United States. They kill their enemies in Cuba. They kill their enemies in Mexico. They kill their enemies anywhere. Moreover, when I made the trip to Venezuela, and in the morning I asked if we were in Venezuela, which coasts were those, they told me they were the coast of Colombia. And I asked the pilot why we had come to Colombia. And they replied, “because the routes to Venezuela pass too close to Santo Domingo.” And they would not risk going near Santo Domingo in case a plane of Trujillo did any misdemeanor. Trujillo is a kind of dictator of the Caribbean and Latin America who does not respect other countries laws. Trujillo does not respect the law of any country.

We could seek out Batista anywhere if we wanted to. Here we have enough volunteers to go and kill Batista in the United States, in Mexico, wherever he might be. However, we shall never accept or promote or support any action outside our national territory, because we respect the laws of other countries. Trujillo does not respect them. Trujillo has established a “continental” dictatorship. Do you understand?

In a certain sense it is logical that a democratic government and we democratic Cubans would have an approving view about any movement against Trujillo, but for us to intervene directly in the problems of Santo Domingo, we shall not intervene directly in Santo Domingo. Do you understand?

Now, here in Cuba the exiles from any country can come to live. They can come to live. And, naturally, the same in Cuba as in Venezuela, I know that Dominicans in particular get much sympathy. I am not going to…

[Cut]

There has not been yet decided the exact date for the purpose of Government, but to make it as soon as possible. I will tell you this: the Government’s purpose of making it was discussed [about being in] two years. The Government’s idea is to call to elections in two years. Usually in these countries… in these countries, when there is a revolution–coups, not revolutions–, then the interest of the rulers as they have no popular support, is to postpone elections as much as possible to try to win.

Our case is the other way around. We have the ninety-some percent of the people. We cannot fear any election. We cannot be afraid to lose an election because we are sure that we will win. But what I am quite worried about is that in this moment when we are reorganizing the State, demanding much righteousness, much discipline, we may end up putting a lot of energy in politics. Do you understand? That we may turn people into having aspirations. Because I do not want good public officers aspiring for the Senate. [I want them to] continue to be public officers. I quite worry about the possibility of catching all the elements who are working in the public office and who are progressing a lot, to have them turn into politics. It is better that they are a little afraid of doing that. It is the only part that worries me of politics. Do you understand? That we may waste energy in those things.

CLARK GALLOWAY: So, the Twenty-sixth of July will organize itself as a political party.

FIDEL CASTRO: Of course, as a political party.

CLARK GALLOWAY: In the incoming elections, will you allow all other political parties to take part, including the Popular Socialist Party?

FIDEL CASTRO: If they meet the requirements established by the electoral law…

CLARK GALLOWAY: If they asked you to be one of the presidential candidates, would you accept?

FIDEL CASTRO: In regard to that I would do what the direction of the Twenty-sixth of July Movement decides, but I think that the Twenty-sixth of July Movement is strong enough to win by its own strength. The Twenty-sixth of July Movement has … the Twenty-sixth of July Movement can win with its sole strength. The Twenty-sixth of July Movement does not need political treaties in order to succeed in revolutionary elections, in elections.

CLARK GALLOWAY: Last question: As you may have heard…

FIDEL CASTRO: …I tell you… yes, because I do not want to make these kind of statements that may look like I am in an divisive mood. At this moment, no issues of political nature have been raised in the country. I want to devote my undivided attention to a revolutionary work, conscious that it will consolidate the Twenty-sixth of July Movement, the democratic movement, the revolutionary movement, a movement of the people’s forces, a very large one.

CLARK GALLOWAY: … as you may have heard, rumors has it that your brother, Maj. Raul Castro, and Maj. Ernesto Guevara are communists or communist enthusiasts. Those are the rumors. I’d like you to comment on this.

FIDEL CASTRO: Well, I am going to tell you my opinion about that. Here in Cuba politics always has been very traditional, very conservative, and there never existed any revolutionary hope. Many young people leaned to the left rather than sympathize with the traditional political parties that existed.

From the moment when it was organized in Cuba the Twenty-sixth of July Movement –which is a truly revolutionary movement, which intends to build the economy of the country on just foundations, which is at the same time a revolutionary movement and a democratic movement with ample human content– this movement has absorbed into its ranks many people who formerly had no political alternative of any kind and who included toward parties of non-radical ideas.

The Twenty-sixth of July Movement is a party of radical ideas, but it is not a Communist movement and it differs from communism in several respects. In a series of essential respects. Do you understand?

And in the Twenty-sixth of July Movement there are men like Raul and like Guevara who are very much in agreement with my political thinking.

CLARK GALLOWAY: Then, they are not communists?

FIDEL CASTRO: The thinking of the Twenty-sixth of July Movement is not communistic.

And the trend I could say to you is that if we looked, it is possible that in the United States you also have many left-leaned ideas also within democratic parties. Perhaps they call you communist because you wrote an article favorable to the Cuban Revolution and they want to investigate you in the Senate of the United States.

CG. No, Sir.