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On his return, he expanded the O.R.I. directorate to 25 members, consisting of 15 of his own men, only ten of Roca's old guard. At the top of O.R.I., there would now be a five-man secretariat headed by himself; Roca, listed No. 5, was the only old Communist named. Cuba would now have a Vice Premier to take over in case anything happened to the Maximum Leader himself: he would be Raul Castro, Fidel's brother. Then Castro went on TV to denounce the Reds and reassert his own leadership. He could not lambaste Roca (he was too strong), but he lashed out at Roca's lieutenant, Anibal Escalante, purged him from O.R.I, and drove him into exile in Czechoslovakia. Bias Roca himself dropped out of sight on an "inspection tour" of the provinces. Mos cow pondered two weeks, then in a Pravda editorial proclaimed that Castro had been justified.
Spurt Up, Trend Down. In any struggle for power between Castro and the Communists, each side has strengths and weaknesses, and very likely there is currently an unsentimental and unresolved alliance. Castro's blunders and the hardships that have resulted have undoubtedly tarnished his hero's image. But he alone still has the charismatic name, the voice, the face, the popular appeal. For their part, the professional Reds have the organizational techniques, the indoctrination textbooks, and a more patient spirit (Roca wanted Castro to lay off the Catholic Church longer, and not to alienate prematurely the technicians needed for the first round of the takeover). Communists are more practical planners, even if they manage to botch up agriculture wherever they are. Mother Russia now controls Cuba's imports, and its purse strings, too. In the beginning, the Kremlin may have wanted only to use Castro without being stuck with him. But now it has a $750 million investment in Cuba, and as Castro fervently wraps his arms around Marxism, Soviet prestige before the world is deeply involved.
At present, each side has need of the other, but it is a precarious equilibrium, and neither can leave it at that. "If I were plotting a fever chart I'd give Fidel's line a short spurt upward, but surely the trend must point down," says a foreign diplomat in Havana. Working in Roca's favor, say the experts, is the massive indoctrination that has brought 60,000 young Cubans from the countryside to fill expropriated Havana mansions. By day, they learn a trade; by night they learn a Roca brand of Communist discipline. "One day," says a diplomat, "Fidel will have to face all those he has sent to school. He is not likely to shake off the Communists now. More than ever he is surrounded by the personnel of the party. If the Communists keep quiet, prod a little here and there, and offer adulation, eventually they will grab away the real power."