At Eureka College, Reagan reviewed the history of America’s fight to “make the world safe for democracy and advance the cause of freedom for all men”.  From the Declaration of Independence, to World War I, World War II, and now the Cold War, the United States fought the same battle, he explained.

“And now, today, we find ourselves involved in another struggle, this time called a “cold war”.  This Cold War between great sovereign nations isn’t really a new struggle at all.  It is the oldest struggle of human kind, as old as man himself.  This is a simple struggle between those of us who believe that man has the dignity and sacred right and the ability to choose and shape his own destiny and those who do not so believe.  This irreconcilable conflict is between those who believe in the sanctity of individual freedom and those who believe in the supremacy of the state.”

Reagan’s speeches often championed the conservative ideals of anti-communism, free markets, lower taxes, and limited government.  These themes were featured prominently in the speech that launched Reagan’s political career.  Often called the “Time for Choosing” speech, Reagan delivered it in support of Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential campaign.

“The end of violence or the aftermath of violence is bitterness.  The aftermath of nonviolence is reconciliation and the creation of a beloved community.  A boycott is never an end within itself.  It is merely a means to awaken a sense of shame within the oppressor but the end is reconciliation, the end is redemption.”

“(N)onviolent resistance is also an internal matter.  It not only avoids external violence or external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit.  And so at the center of our movement stood the philosophy of love.  The attitude that the only way to change humanity and make for the society that we all long for is to keep love at the center of our lives.”

“I think every person who believes in nonviolent resistance believes somehow that the universe in some form is on the side of justice.  That there is something unfolding in the universe whether one speaks of it as an unconscious process, or whether one speaks of it as some unmoved mover, or whether someone speaks of it as a personal God.”

Variety Magazine defended CBS, saying, “Khrushchev came across on television as a human being instead of a monster, which has upset Washington into believing that he may have created a favorable impression among the American audience”.  CBS President Frank Stanton justified the broadcast by stating,

“We were as much aware of our responsibility as we were of our freedom.  We were doing our job as journalists.  Khrushchev and his views are of great importance to our world and the world of our children.  The less this man – or any man of his importance – remains a myth or a dark legend or a mystery to the American people, the more certain they are to size him up correctly.”

Stanton also quoted Thomas Jefferson, that the citizenry “may be trusted to hear everything true and false and to form a correct judgement between them”.

In five years, then-President Jack would have extra-special help celebrating number 45.  A sultry Marilyn Monroe, sewn into a flesh-colored, rhinestone-frosted gown, delivered “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” at a Madison Square Garden party.  Over fifteen thousand people were in attendance; Jackie was a no-show.

“It has become necessary for Vietnam, more than for other countries, to adopt a certain number of principles, guide lines for action, not only to protect her from the totalitarian temptations but, above all, to assist her to attain independence instead of anarchy – to safeguard peace without sacrificing independence – to attain economic progress without sacrificing essential human liberties.

“We affirm, therefore, our faith in the absolute value of the human being – whose dignity antedates society and whose destiny is greater than time.

“We affirm that the sole legitimate object of the state is to protect the fundamental rights of human beings to existence – to the free development of their intellectual, moral, and spiritual life.

“We affirm that democracy is neither material happiness nor the supremacy of numbers.  Democracy is essentially a permanent effort to find the right political means in order to assure to all citizens the right of free development and of maximum initiative, responsibility, and spiritual life.”

President Batista makes his point in this undated photo

On April 22, 1957, a reporter for the New York Times interviewed Cuban President Fulgencio Batista in his heavily sandbagged and fortified palace in Havana.  Once past the numerous policemen and army troops armed with machine guns, automatic rifles, and pistols, the Times‘ representative joined Batista in his spacious red-and-gold draped office.  Constitutional guarantees of freedom had been recently restored (imposed, Batista claimed, to protect the people from terrorism), and over a month had passed since rebels had stormed the palace in an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Batista.

When reminded that his political opponents called him a dictator, the President laughed off the accusation.  “I would like to know how I could be a dictator,” Batista responded, “Everywhere I go, people embrace me, and I know the people are happy with me.  There has never been a military man in my Cabinet.  There are no restrictions on freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of religion.  There are no concentration camps in this country.  The Congress can override any legislation I might veto, or refuse to pass what I want passed.  There is no libel law in Cuba.  Everybody says what they want.  Is this what dictatorship means?”

Fidel Castro, a “natural criminal” and “Communist sympathizer” had only a “handful” of supporters and was a non-issue.  Batista identified his greatest opposition as coming from supporters of Miami resident and former president Carlos Prio Socarras, who over the last three years had tried to send more than $3 million dollars worth of arms to the island nation, which had been discovered and confiscated by government employees.

Next question: Was the President himself armed?  “Why not?” Batista replied, pulling a pistol out of his desk drawer and firing off a few shots.  “Just practicing,” he assured the nervous aide who scrambled into the inner sanctum.

So, about the allegations that Cuba suffered under an iron thumb?  Batista shot off a one-liner.  “I think the only dictatorship around here is that which my beloved wife and four sons exert upon me,” he confided.

President Fulgencio Batista speaks from the Presidential Palace balcony in an undated photo from Life Magazine

On April 8, 1957, as an interlude to discovering arms caches and rounding up opposition leaders, the government of Cuban President Fulgencio Batista basked in the support of a mass of demonstrators backing his regime.  A special report by R. Hart Phillips of the New York Times covered a gathering of thousands of pro-Batista placard and banner-carrying representatives from industry, commerce, labor, government, and political parties in a park in front of the Presidential palace.  The group, carefully protected by rifle and machine-gun carrying police and army soldiers stationed on the streets and nearby rooftops, declared their approval of the President’s policies, public works programs, and “efforts to suppress the revolutionary activities of his enemies”.

Batista appeared briefly on a palace balcony to speak to his supporters, numbering (according to government sources, but disputed by others unspecified by Phillips) in excess of 250,000.  Banners and signs wielded by the crowd must have cheered the beleaguered leader: “Five Hundred American Residents of the Isle of Pines Have Faith in Batista”; and “For Batista, in the Past, Now and Forever”.  As the crowd released “Peace”-theme-related flocks of white doves, President Batista was probably hoping mightily that “forever” would mean many more years.

Meanwhile, a new iron grille door had been installed where gunmen had gained access to the palace March 13th, sandbags filled the ground floor windows, and armed guards were posted in strategic points.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (left center, in a white jacket) talks with Dr. Ralph J. Bunche (right center) at Ghana's independence ceremonies

On April 7, 1957, the parishioners of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama heard a stirring message from their pastor, who had recently returned from the new African nation of Ghana.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had been present at the ceremonial celebrations of independence for the former British colony on the continent’s western coast.    His sermon this day came to be widely known under the title, ”The Birth of a New Nation“.

He shared with the church his experience of joy and tears as he observed the triumph of freedom for new Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah, still attired that day in his prison garb, and for the people of Ghana whose history had long been one of domination and exploitation.  With freedom came hope, and still much hard work ahead, Dr. King acknowledged.  Comparing the new nation with the biblical nation of Israel in their exodus from Egypt, Dr. King stressed that Ghana faced a wilderness.  The new Prime Minister understood that an improved industrial base and increased cultural standards, including education, were vital for the country’s future success.  With courage and diligence, Ghana’s promised land of prosperity – again to compare them to the Israelites – lay ahead.

“Ghana has something to say to us,” King told his followers.  “It says to us first, that the oppressor never voluntarily gives away freedom to the oppressed.  You have to work for it. . . . Privileged classes never give up their privileges without strong resistance.  So don’t go out this morning with any illusions.  Don’t go back into your homes and around Montgomery thinking that the Montgomery City Commission and that all the forces in the leadership in the South will eventually work out this thing” for African-American citizens.  “Freedom only comes through persistent revolt, through persistent agitation, and through persistently rising up against the system of evil.”

Ghana ”says to us another thing,” Dr. King continued, also citing the recent emancipation of India from British rule.  “It reminds us of the fact that a nation or a people can break loose from oppression without violence.”  Kkrumah and Gandhi had proved that.  Dr. King espoused nonviolence because “after revolt is over we can live with people as their brothers and sisters.  Our aim must never be to defeat them or humiliate them.”  “The aftermath of nonviolence is the creation of the beloved community . . . redemption . . . reconciliation,” while the aftermath of violence was “emptiness and bitterness”.

“Let us fight passionately and unrelentingly for the goals of justice and peace.  But let’s be sure that our hands are clean in this struggle.  Let us never fight with falsehood and violence and hate and malice, but always fight with love,” remembering that “freedom never comes on a silver platter.”  Ghana reminds us, he cautioned, that “the road to freedom is a difficult, hard road,” but “the forces of the universe are on the side of justice.”

Presidential Palace, Havana

On March 13, 1957, coordinated attacks on the Presidential Palace of Fulgencio Batista, the National Capitol, the Ministry of Health, and radio station Reloj shook Havana and its outskirts as large groups of well-armed youths and other members of opposition groups attempted to oust the embattled leader of Cuba.  The New York Times reported that rebel rifles, machine guns, hand grenades, and bravado were met by police forces, the Palace garrison, and tanks, anti-aircraft guns, and several thousand troops dispatched from nearby Camp Columbia, site of Batista’s recent lunch celebrating the fifth anniversary of his rise to power.  After two hours of heavy fighting, in which schools and businesses closed, residents took refuge in their homes, the airport shut down, and television and radio broadcasts were heavily censored, forty rebel fighters and five government troops were killed and almost eighty men on both sides wounded.

Damage at radio station Reloj, Havana

An American tourist, U.S. Army veteran and chemical shipping company clerk Peter Korinda of Clifton, New Jersey, died when he was struck in the neck by a stray bullet while standing on the balcony of the Regis Hotel on Colon Street, two blocks from the palace.

Following the cessation of hostilities, assassination target Batista issued an announcement that he and his family were safe and that the attack was carried out by pro-Communist forces, including those of Fidel Castro’s M-26-7.  “The people have responded as always in support of the Government to maintain order and peace,” he asserted.

In the aftermath, a round-up of opposition “elements” was underway.  Hundreds of arrests were anticipated.  Partial elections promised to be held in the near future would be put off until 1958.

Castro is a Communist but no longer a threat, Batista claims: Only time will tell whether Fulgencio or Fidel is blowing more smoke

On March 11, 1957, The New York Times reported on Cuban President Fulgencio Batista’s luncheon bash, celebrating the fifth anniversary of his power-grab with his Army troops at Camp Columbia.  Batista’s after-rations remarks included the following claims:

• Fidel Castro was an agent of the Soviet Union, having attended meetings behind the Iron Curtain and using communistic dialectic in his proclamations
• Fidel’s rebel forces had been reduced to scarcely a dozen men and his movement, M-26-7, was of no importance
• Cuban Army troops were no longer fighting the rebels in Oriente Province, but helping reconstruct residents’ homes and schools, and providing medical aid and other assistance
• The claims of a “distinguished newspaperman of a great newspaper” (AKA Herbert Matthews of The New York Times) that Castro’s followers actually numbered 90 to 100, controlled the Sierra Maestre mountains, and were on the offensive, were completely unfounded

Batista’s reign had blessed the island, he further asserted, with five years in which excellent economic conditions had been achieved, public order reestablished, foreign and local investments greatly increased, and national stability restored.  Radio and television broadcasts carried the President’s words across the island, until only recently under the pall of news censorship.  What did the increasingly rebel-rattled Cubans think of Batista’s words?  Did they believe their El Presidente?