Herbert L. Matthews

Herbert Lionel Matthews (January 10, 1900 – July 30, 1977) was a reporter and editorialist for The New York Times who grew to notoriety after revealing that Fidel Castro was still alive and living in the Sierra Maestra mountains, though Fulgencio Batista had claimed publicly that he was killed during the 26th of July Movement's landing.

The grandson of Jewish immigrants, Matthews was born and raised in New York City’s affluent Riverside Drive in the Upper West Side. Matthews volunteered for the Army near the end of WWI, and went on to become a graduate of Columbia University. He subsequently found employment with the New York Times and reported from Europe during the Spanish Civil War. His coverage of that war and later the Cuban political situation were subject to substantial criticism for showing communist sympathies, a charge Matthews rejected for years. He also reported during the Italian conquest of Ethiopia in 1936; and then wrote Eyewitness in Abyssinia: With Marshal Bodoglio's forces to Addis Ababa in 1937.

"When the world had given us up for dead, the interview with Matthews put the lie to our disappearance."

In February 1957, Herbert Matthews was invited down to Cuba to interview Fidel Castro, leader of the Cuban Revolution.Ruby Phillips, the correspondent in Havana for The New York Times at the time, had received information from an emissary of the 26th of July Movement that Castro wanted to meet with a reporter from one of the most influential papers in the United States, and Matthews seized the opportunity as soon as it was available. The interview was conducted in secret so that Fulgencio Batista, the President of Cuba at the time, would not find out about their meeting. Matthews’ interview contained information revealing that Fidel Castro was in fact alive, unlike Batista had been claiming, which was not only shocking news to both the United States and Cuba, but the news also gave the revolutionaries in Cuba hope that the revolution could continue, as their leader was still alive, and so was the revolution. Within the interview, Castro also misled Matthews to believe that his rebel force, that had adopted guerrilla warfare as a tactic, was much bigger and more powerful than previously conceived. Matthews’ portrayal of the army made it seem like Castro had a large following and that the majority of Cuba was aligned with him. Both Castro and Matthews understood how surprising the news of his survival would be, so they made a point of taking a picture together and Castro signed the interview, just to add proof of the event. Batista, still trying to squash the revolutionary forces rising in Cuba, claimed the photograph was a fake and continued lying about Castro being dead.

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