Cuba: Half the Fun

Most dictators find a certain cruel pleasure in the judicious balance of bread and circuses necessary to keep their people in hand. In Cuba, where nearly everything is rationed, Castro has only half the fun. But when circus time arrives, Fidel makes the most of it, as he did last week on a double occasion for revelry—the seventh anniversary of his rise to power and the convening of the first "anti-imperialist" conference of Latin American, African and Asian nations.

For days in advance, workers were painting Havana's threadbare buildings, draping banners, and hanging enormous murals depicting Brobdingnagian revolutionaries. The festivities began...

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