CUBA: All-American Grab

Fidel Castro last week announced the "forcible expropriation" of $700 million worth of the total $1 billion U.S. investment in Cuba. The effect was to complete the seizure of U.S. property that, until now, the Castroites had only "intervened" in (meaning taken over to operate). The only U.S. property presumably left untouched were banks, some small firms, and two nickel plants.

As a dramatic stage for his announcement, an ailing Fidel Castro used the final meeting of the First Latin American Youth Congress at the Havana baseball stadium. From the moment he slowly climbed the steps to the speakers' platform in...

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