To the Editor:

Years ago, I talked with the son of General Fulgencio Batista from Cuba. The son told me that his family owned the largest newspaper in Cuba. General Batista was aware of what was about to happen. He asked the kitchen staff to make a picnic lunch. He could not even trust the people who worked in their home at the time. General Batista told his family to all come as they were going on a picnic in their private plane to an island nearby.

The gentleman who told me this said, “I left Cuba with a pair of swim trunks and no shoes, as we were just going on a picnic. Well, we were not. We flew straight to the USA and never returned to Cuba. Castro would have killed my father because of what had been printed about him in the newspaper that was not good.”

My best wishes for a Merry Christmas.

Rachel A. Clement