>> Fidel Castro: And if this Revolution falls,
Because by the time there will be a million, a million and a half people with no work,
people who will not believe in anybody anymore, then it will be a chaos.
Trust me, gentleman.
>> [Music: ]
there was a photo of my grandfather sitting on a sofa with his tape recorder
interviewing a man with a beard and a funny hat.
>> [Music: ]
I came to understand that this was Fidel Castro
that my grandfather was interviewing.
and this is my picture of him in my head.
This photo has traveled with me to every city I've ever lived in,
and has been in every office I've worked in,
and in my house.
>> Clark Galloway: So, do you see in this any possible danger for Cuba?
>> Laura Galloway: You've got my grandfather leaning in with Castro
in a very animated discussion...
The ideology of the Twenty-sixth of July Movement...
>> Laura Galloway: ...and you can see the plush velvet curtains behind them
and imagine them stiff with cigar smoke.
>> Fidel Castro: ...which is the ideology of social justice within the limits of the
and Maj. Ernesto Guevara are communists or communist enthusiasts.
Those are the rumors. I'd like you to comment on this.
>> Fidel Castro: The Twenty-sixth of July Movement is a party of radical ideas, but
and it differs from communism in several respects. In a series of essential respects.
Do you understand?
And in the Twenty-sixth of July Movement there are men like Raul and like Guevara who are
very much in agreement with my political thinking.
>> Laura Galloway: A few years ago, beneath piles and piles of articles and stories and
letters that my grandfather had written,
under the albums and more albums of calling cards from ambassadors and presidents.
All of people that he had met and interviewed throughout his life.
I found a single cassette tape that simply said "Galloway-slash-Castro."
>> Clark Galloway: As a Prime Minister, you have an important work to do.
>> Laura Galloway: I'd actually never heard my grandfather's voice before.
And so to hear his voice doing this interview was just absolutely incredible to me.
>> Clark Galloway: How are you going to put the Government's matters in order?
Would it be possible to delegate some of your responsibilities?
>> Fidel Castro: I have a lot of work. Because mine is an administrative function,
but it is also a political one. I have to talk to the people, guide them, encourage
them...
>> Laura Galloway: What's really fascinating about this tape are all the sounds that you
can hear in the background.
Matches being struck.
Cigars being smoked.
You can hear the ding of a typewriter in the background.
And just a lot of ambient noise that lends color to what the moment in time actually
looked like.
>> Clark Galloway: What is your position in regard to the United States base in Guantanamo?
>> Fidel Castro: There have been some minor conflicts arising from the fact
that sailors always let them disembark, to go to Guantanamo for example.
Of course, it was economically convenient because they spent money.
But they were thousands of sailors and they were going to certain places for entertainment.
And they did not know their way around well and would often come by the houses of decent
people and knocked at any home.
It is a problem.
I am highly concerned about preventing even the slightest incident from happening. Do
you understand?
>> Clark Galloway: Well, it seems that there are no issues of whether or not the United
States continues to occupy the base on the present terms.
>> Fidel Castro: We have other problems which are of more interest for us. If we can maintain
friendly relations with the United States. I see no reason why conflicts can arise.
>> Laura Galloway: What's remarkable is at the end of the interview,
and that's when Fidel Castro actually asks somewhat of a rhetorical question about my
grandfather.
He says: maybe people will think that you're a communist...?
>> Fidel Castro: Perhaps they call you communist because you wrote an article favorable to
the Cuban Revolution
and they want to investigate you in the Senate of the United States.
>> Clark Galloway. No, señor. [Laughter]
>> [Music: ]
>> Laura Galloway: My grandfather did this interview in 1959 and he actually died in
January of 1961.
He was really deeply surprised by the fact that Castro became an overt communist.
And he had not really anticipated it at the time.
He thought that Batista was a terrible sadist
and this would be a very positive change for Cuba.
But things turned out very differently of course.
>> [Music: ]
>> Laura Galloway: So my grandfather served as a colonel in army intelligence
for Latin America during World War II.
And after the war he returned to journalism. And he was purely a newsman as far as I know.
But he was a really good intelligence officer.
And I wouldn't know today in the year 2013 whether or not he had a double life.
But I don't think so. [Laughs]
>> [Music: ]
what we will have here in Cuba is a hell. Hell itself.
>> Laura Galloway: And as I got older
>> Laura Galloway: My grandfather died before I was born,
>> Fidel Castro: The revolution that we are making offers...
>> Fidel Castro: The Cuban people things that no other social regime in the world can offer today
I have no fear at all of any other ideology.
>> Laura Galloway: When I was a little girl growing up in Indiana,
>> Laura Galloway: And maybe there's a scotch somewhere sitting on a side table.
over-arching democracy, liberty and human rights,
is the most beautiful thing that can be promised to a man.
it is not a Communist movement
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