Herbert Matthews

Journalist, born in New York City, New York, USA. A foreign correspondent and then editorialist for the New York Times (1922–67), he reported on the Spanish civil war of the 1930s and the Cuban revolution of the 1950s. He was often accused of a leftist bias, especially toward Fidel Castro.

Herbert Lionel Matthews (1900–1977) was a reporter for the New York Times said to be the first to report Fidel Castro was alive in the Sierra Maestra. Cuban exile author Teo Babun ("The Cuban Revolution: Years of Promise") mentions in a C-SPAN2/BookTV segment that "Castro 'smuggled' Matthews in early 1957, into the Sierra Maestra Mountains in eastern Cuba' to cover the ongoing and subsequent coup of Batista. (15m30s point in BookTV video.)

Comparing Matthews reports on the Cuban circumstances of the late 1950 with of those of Phillips suggests that Matthews was indeed quite partial to Castro and that he used his more senior position in the New York Times to elevate Castro to higher perceived status in the resistance to Fulgencio Batista's dictatorship and to low peddle Batista's proclamations that Castro was a communist . Matthews has been compared to Stalin apologist Walter Duranty a fellow journalist on the New York Times staff. Matthews of The New York Times. Counterpoint Press, New York ISBN 1-58243-280-5 Matthews, Herbert Lionel 1961 The Cuban story. Braziller ASIN: B0007DNCMS Matthews, Herbert Lionel 1961 The yoke and the arrows; ed edition ASIN: B0007DFF7I Matthews, Herbert Lionel -1964 Return to Cuba. Luso-Brazilian Studies, A Special Issue Of ‘Hispanic American Report’ Stanford, Ca Matthews, Herbert Lionel – 1969 Castro: A Political Biography. Schuster Matthews, Herbert Lionel – 1969 Cuba. London: Collier-Macmillan Matthews, Herbert Lionel 1969 Fidel Castro. Schuster, Clarion Book New York Matthews, Herbert Lionel 1973 Half of Spain Died: A Reappraisal of the Spanish Civil War. New York, Scribner, 1973 Matthews, Herbert Lionel -1975 Revolution in Cuba: An Essay in Understandings.