European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 27, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                App two Cuba s president on podium during third cuban communist party Congress in Havana in february 19ss inset Castro in new York in october 19ss, where he launched his "26th of july movement to overthrow Batista regime in Cuba. Fidel Castro Ever the defiant revolutionary by George Gedda associated presso n the Spur of the moment one evening Fidel Castro decided he wanted a big enthusiastic Send Olf the following morning or his distinguished visitor Rajiv Gandhi the prime minister of India. Rounding up half a million people on Short notice is no Small Falk. It took Only a snap of Castro s fingers. By Dawn Havana was Abuzz with activity in preparation for Gandhi s mid morning departure. Mass s Gan lations were alerted and buses normally used to take commuters to their jobs were mobilized. Half a million cheering cubans saw the Indian Leader off that Day in 1985. A Western Diplomat in Havana recalls the incident As an example of How Fidel Castro 27 years after seizing Power and nearing age 60, remains very much in control the undisputed Boss in Cuba. The Young guerrilla who came Down from the Sierra Maestra mountains to overthrow a dictator has outlasted almost every world Leader in Power at the time he took control of Cuba. His Beard is flecked with Gray these Days but Castro still appears Youthful and vigorous somewhat Slimmer sunday july 27, 1986 Castro in june 1957 a guerrilla tighter. Than a cd years ago to still inspires Awe and respect or car and loathing among his countrymen and others who have been touched Lor belter or worse by his Rule the Devotion of his followers is Akin to reverence to them the policies set Down by the stale carry the same weight As papal decrees do for roman catholics on the International stage cd pro is As defiant Asho was a generation ago when in an act of political dating he led a devoutly anti communist country into the soviet bloc right under Uncle Sam s nose and got away with in. For All the veneration he inspires there is a surprising degree of informality in the Way cubans relate to Castro. To cubans he is simply  personal adulation he insists holds Little Appeal for  will not see a statue of me anywhere nor a school with my name nor a Street nor a Little town nor any Type of personality cull because we have not taught our people to believe but to think he has said when Castro reached the Sierra Maestra mountains in late 1956 to begin his guerrilla struggle he had Only a dozen men and seven rifles. His confident predictions of Victory then were derided by his companions yet the Conquest was his in just two years. Six months before his forces entered Havana on new year s Day 1959, ousting the discredited and demoralized dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista Castro already had begun plotting against his big neighbor to the North telling a confidant in a private memo when this War is Over a much wider and bigger War will begin for me the War that i am going to wage against them the United slates. I realize that that is going to be my True  aside from the soviet Union no country has Given the United states More problems Over an extended period than has Cuba. Attempts by successive american presidents to gel Tough with Castro generally have failed and had the effect of consolidating his Power. The trevo Luliona Fervour Castro has been Able to maintain is attributable in part to the existence of a neighbor which is both militarily powerful and unswervingly hostile. Politically he has profited from having a foreign Devil nearby. Cuba has always been too Small a stage or Castro. He views his revolution As being in the Vanguard of an anti american movement that one Day will sweep the third world. In the 1960s, he sponsored efforts to Export his revolution to latin America through guerrilla warfare. In the 1970s, he turned his attention to Africa deploying continued on Page 14 the stars and stripes Page 13