Herbert Matthews

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Herbert Lionel Matthews (1900 – 1977) was a reporter and editorialist^[1] for the New York Times who grew to notoriety after revealing that Fidel Castro was still alive and living in the Sierra Maestra mountains though Batista had claimed publicly he was killed during the July 26 movement's landing.

Matthews was a graduate of Columbia University and reported from Europe during the Spanish Civil War before returning to New York. His coverage of that war and later the Cuban political situation were subject to substantial criticism for showing communist sympathies, a charge Matthews refuted for years.

His interview with Castro was negotiated by Ruby Phillips, then the Bureau Chief in Havana. Cuban exile author Teo Babun ("The Cuban Revolution: Years of Promise") mentions in a C-SPAN2/BookTV segment that "Castro 'smuggled' Matthews in early 1957, into the Sierra Maestra in eastern Cuba" to cover the ongoing and subsequent coup of Batista. He also said that Che Guevera later commented, "The presence of a foreign (American-preferred) journalist was more important for us than a military victory."^[2]

Comparing Matthews reports on the Cuban circumstances of the late 1950 with of those of Phillips^[3] suggests that Matthews was indeed quite partial to Castro^[4] and that he used his more senior position in the New York Times to elevate Castro to higher perceived status in the resistance to Fulgencio Batista's dictatorship and to downplay Batista's proclamations that Castro was a communist.^[5]

Reflecting conservative displeasure at Matthews' role, the conservative magazine National Review published a caricature of Castro over the caption "I got my job through the New York Times." (The caption was the tagline of contemporary advertisements published by the Times touting its classified ads section.)^[6] Matthews has been compared to Stalin apologist Walter Duranty, a fellow journalist on the New York Times staff, by the conservative organization Accuracy in Media.^[7]

In February, 2007, a Reuters report^[8] quoted Cuba's state news agency as reporting that Cuba had unveiled a plaque in the Sierra Maestra to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Matthews-Castro interview.

[edit] Partial bibliography

• Depalma, Anthony 2006 The Man Who Invented Fidel: Castro, Cuba, and Herbert L. Matthews of The New York Times. PublicAffairs Perseus Publishing New York ISBN 1-58648-332-3
• Koch, Stephen 2005 The Breaking Point: Hemingway, Dos Passos, and the Murder of Jose Robles. Counterpoint Press, New York ISBN 1-58243-280-5
• Matthews, Herbert Lionel 1961 The Cuban story. G. Braziller ASIN: B0007DNCMS
• Matthews, Herbert Lionel 1961 The yoke and the arrows; A report on Spain G. Braziller; Rev. ed edition ASIN: B0007DFF7I
• Matthews, Herbert Lionel -1964 Return to Cuba. Stanford U, Institute of Hispanic American & Luso-Brazilian Studies, A Special Issue Of ‘Hispanic American Report’ Stanford, Ca
• Matthews, Herbert Lionel – 1969 Castro: A Political Biography. New York: Simon & Schuster
• Matthews, Herbert Lionel – 1969 Cuba. New York: The Macmillan Co. London: Collier-Macmillan
• Matthews, Herbert Lionel 1969 Fidel Castro. Simon & Schuster, Clarion Book New York
• Matthews, Herbert Lionel 1973 Half of Spain Died: A Reappraisal of the Spanish Civil War. New York, Scribner, 1973
• Matthews, Herbert Lionel -1975 Revolution in Cuba: An Essay in Understandings. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons

[edit] References

1. ^ http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/eresources/archives/collections/html/4079089.html
2. ^ http://www.booktv.org/History/index.asp?segID=6691&schedID=413 15m30s point in BookTV video
3. ^ http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuba-rev-57.htm
4. ^ http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/cuban-rebels/NYT-6-9-57.htm
5. ^ http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/fidel/castro-red.htm
6. ^ http://nrd.nationalreview.com/article/?q=OGU0MzE5ODA5YjUwYjI3NGM1MDRkYWZiNGYxZWUyYzU=
7. ^ http://www.aim.org/aim_column/A2459_0_3_0_C/
8. ^ http://in.today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2007-02-18T030633Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_India-288163-2.xml&archived=False