Arms For Cuba

The United States has at last moved openly to stop arms shipments to the Batista Government in Cuba. An announcement has now been made of an order to hold up 1,950 Garand rifles which President Batista had paid for.

Technically speaking, this is not an arms embargo such as we put down against the Spanish Republican Government in the civil war of 1936-39. It is a decision to suspend all arms shipments while the present state of tension continues in Cuba. It will hurt the Batista regime, but the United States has certainly given ample evidence for months that it is doing everything possible to prevent the clandestine shipment of arms to the rebel opposition in Cuba. Our zeal in that respect has been notable.

The whole problem of giving or selling arms to Latin-American dictators has bedeviled relations between Latin American and the United States as much as, or more than, any policy we follow. So far as Latin America and the United States as much as, or more than, any policy we follow. So far as Latin Americans are concerned, these arms are not and never will be used for hemispheric defense; they are used by the dictators against their own people and in order to keep themselves in power. This is what has been happening in Cuba.

The United States has a number of bilateral Mutual Security Pacts with Latin-American countries as part of the Inter-American countries as part of the Inter-American Defense Plan connected with the Rio de Janeiro treaty for hemispheric defense. Such arms are grants in aid which the United States theory has a right to keep under observation or control. In addition, Governments are entitled to buy arms for cash in the United States with American approval.

In the case of Cuba the United States has been painted in a blacker light than it deserves. There is room for criticism, but it really lies more in the field of public relations than in policy. The last important shipment of arms (tanks with “U.S.A” still painted on them) reached Havana a year ago February and was unfortunately publicized with great fanfare by the American Ambassador at that time. Some arms purchased by the Batista Government before that time were shipped last autumn, but there have been no purchases and no shipments in months.

The State Department was apparently afraid to make this known until now, and as a result Cuban American relations have been embittered unnecessarily.