Castro and Cuba

* Let’s go a step further than lifting the Cuban embargo as urged by Eugene Carroll (Commentary, Oct. 25). Before Cuba’s well-regarded military is dismantled and Castro fades away, they should be enlisted to support those United Nations missions from which the U.S. is blanching.

Fidel Castro and most Cubans should identify particularly with Haiti’s down-trodden Aristide supporters.

What a happy ending: the redemption of Castro’s Cuba, democracy in Haiti and another gold star for the United Nations.

FRED NATHAN

San Diego

* I want to express my appreciation and gratitude for the Cuba article by Carroll. It is one of the few rational pieces that I have seen in 20 years. I have never understood how such a small and poor country could be a threat to the most powerful nation in the world.

I also hate the knowledge that my tax dollars are being spent to take food out of the mouths of Cuban children.

MARGARET P. HOFFMAN

Pasadena

* Lifting the embargo now will not end the dictatorship, but help Fidel Castro remain in power. The reason for the embargo is to overthrow the most oppressive and longest lasting dictatorial regime in the history of Latin America. Carroll is wrong in saying that medicine is denied to Cuba. The embargo exempts medicine. Exiled Cuban families send medicine to their relatives while paying exorbitant shipping charges imposed by the dictator.

The end of the Cuban nightmare is near; this is not the time to help an megalomaniac dictatorship stay in power.

ROSENDO J. CASTILLO

Arcadia