FDR's Young Admirer

FDR's Young Admirer
By George Will

WASHINGTON -- The letter from a 12-year-old to "my good
friend Roosvelt" is dated Nov. 6, 1940, one day after FDR
won a third term. Saying he is "very happy" FDR won, he
adds: "If you like, give me a ten dollars bill green
american." The letter, an enlarged copy of which is on
display in the National Archives, ends: "Good by. Your
friend, Fidel Castro."

Young Castro with his hand out prefigured his role in
political history. Until its spell was broken, Marxism
mesmerized millions by promising to solve mankind's
economic problem -- abundance without the alienation
caused by work, the French word for which is travail.
Instead, Castro created mendicant Marxism, making Cuba
dependent on huge subventions from the Soviet Union,
which paid eight times the market price for sugar, and
in the process purchased young Cuban men to fight in
various "wars of liberation." When Russia withdrew its
aid, Cuba's economy quickly shrank 35 percent, more
than the U.S. economy contracted (26.5 percent) in the
Depression. Cuba under communism had to import sugar.
Today, Hugo Chavez's Venezuela provides $4 billion of
oil to a Cuba with a GDP of $45 billion.