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  • >> 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.

  • Do you understand?

  • >> 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.

  • >> Clark Galloway: As you may have heard, rumor has it that your brother, Maj. Raul Castro

  • 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

  • Subtitles by the Amara.org community

>> Fidel Castro: And if this Revolution falls,

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