Cuba's election of June 1, which was encouragingly open & aboveboard, almost resulted in a military dictatorship. The news came out last week. Two nights after frail, professorial Dr. Ramón Grau San Martin was elected President, his Vice President-elect Dr. Raúl de Cardenas* trotted nervously across a shadowy lawn where U.S. Ambassador Spruille Braden was dining with friends. Drawing the Ambassador aside, he spluttered that rough, tough General Manuel Benitez, Chief of the National Police, planned to seize President Fulgencio Batista, prevent Grau from assuming the Presidency by setting up a military dictatorship.
Once he was sure that the danger...