Facing the yellow, colonial-style city hall of Santiago de Cuba one morning last week, 200 well-dressed women rhythmically chanted: "Freedom! Freedom!" Then, as U.S. Ambassador Earl E. T. Smith listened from an office where he was getting the keys to the city, the cry changed to screams for help. Outside, Dictator Fulgencio Batista's police rushed the demonstrators, twisted arms, carted many off to jail. A fire truck was moved up, began pumping streams of water at the women, supporters of Rebel Fidel Castro's revolutionaries holed up in the nearby Sierra Maestra.
As towering (6 ft. 5 in.) Ambassador Smith left...
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