Castro's U.S. Guests

"Only a war of incredible proportions could overthrow Castro. Here people of both sexes and of every age carry guns and are capable of either murdering the government leaders -or over throwing the government if discontented. We regret that the American people are deprived of the facts of the socialist revolution in Cuba." Fidel Castro could not have said it better, but for his pur poses the propaganda was far more valuable, coming as it did from 58 youth ful, presumably open-minded American "students"* who have been making news for a month on a forbidden junket to Cuba. Last week, as the 58 prepared to return home, the U.S. prepared a welcome far hotter than Castro's.

At his press conference, President Kennedy lit into the travelers for a lack of "concern for the security and foreign policy objectives of the United States" and called their leaders Communists. The excursion, paid for partly by the Castro government, was organized in San Francisco and New York by mem bers of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, long since shown to be supported by Castro cash.

To avoid a State Department ban on travel to Cuba, the 58 had to fly expensively roundabout courses to London, Paris, Amsterdam and Prague before winging on to Havana on Czechoslovak Airlines. They were lionized by President Osvaldo Dorticos, Armed Forces Chief Raul Castro, Communist Boss Blas Roca and, of course, Fidel himself, who skindived with them near the Bay of Pigs and played pingpong with them at Varadero. ("I give up," California Student Eric Johnson gasped. "What you are doing to me is another Bay of Pigs.") They visited shipyards, collective farms and schools, squeezed in glowing television interviews (hoo-rayed Attorney John Robert Glenn, 34, from Indiana: "I think there is probably more enthusiasm by the Cuban people for their government than for any other government I have seen").

Once the 58 return to the U.S., the Department of State (which warned them at four stages en route of the illegality of their action) is all ready to lift their passports. For those who are "definitely Communists," President Kennedy last week said that some further action "is being considered." Under the law, they could be fined up to $5,000 each and sentenced to up to five years in jail for violating the travel ban.

*Originally 59, but one tourist died in Santiago during a predawn swim, apparently of a heart attack.

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