For centuries, in fact since Columbus discovered the island, travelers, tourists and journalists have been presenting false or incomplete pictures of Cuba and its people. Thus, Ted Morgan's article is far from unique.

Mr. Morgan states flatly that "Cubans live in the only Latin-American country that has no misery, no slums, no flagrant contrast between unlimited private wealth and beggars in the streets, no malaria, no polio, very little child mortality and practically no illiteracy." This unqualified assertion is proof of his reliance on official sources and on impressions based on a guided tour courtesy of the Castro Government, which excluded sites considered too strategic or delicate to be shown: "I had drawn up a list of what I wanted to see, and from my list the Foreign Ministry chose what they wanted me to seethe Sugar Ministry and a labor camp were out; a housing development and a primary school were in." But even allowing for the undeniable achievements of the revolution, a "veteran journalist" should be more scrupulous in his inquiries, or at least less subject to persuasion, and judicious in presenting a full view of the achievements and their human cost. Every totalitarian regime can flaunt the testimony of outsiders to its advances and progress.

The visitors to Cuba today who are contented with tours arranged by the Foreign Ministry cannot write accurately of Cuba. Cuba is also the 25,000 murdered under Castro's dictatorship; the 50,000 current  political prisoners; the 250,000 punished in the past for all types of "crimes against the state"; the 700,000 exiles scattered throughout the world; the millions not "assimilated" into the ruling order, whose existence is proved by the need for the state of terror in which the people are kept, and by the block organizations of civilians who continuously spy on their neighbors.

With respect to this type of "neo-Orwellian Big Brotherism," some commentary should be made. In his assessment of the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution ("founded in the days of invasion hysteria, as informers for the political police" to report "their neighbors' counterrevolutionary activities and remarks") Mr. Morgan affirms that committee members now "operate mainly as social workers," although he concedes that "C.D.R. members take guard duty at night, once a month for three and a half hours." If there is such widespread contentment in the "busy, soon-to-be prosperous anthill," as Mr. Morgan would have us believe; why is such intense vigilance necessary? To catch an occasional petty thief like the one mentioned in the article? Mr. Morgan's simpleness is made all the more clear when he concludes that there were no dissidents or counterrevolutionaries on the block he was shown "since every able-bodied adult wore the Movimiento CeDeRista pin showing a peasant swinging a machete."