CUBA: Not Afraid to Die

Havana's Radio Reloj—Radio Clock—chattered away one afternoon last week with news and commercials, then gave the time of day: 3:30. A pause followed—for the excellent reason that three young men had burst into the studio waving guns. One of them pointed a pistol at the announcer's head, and the trembling announcer broadcast what he was ordered to say: "Batista is dead!" At the Presidential Palace, fellow rebels stormed in to make the words come true, were soon within one flight of stairs of succeeding.

But when the attack was over, it was the attackers who were dead; Fulgencio Batista, 56,...