CUBANS (By Joseph C. Harsch) On May 5 when President Carter stood up to address the earnest and generousminded people of the League of Women Voters it seemed right and proper and perfectly natural for him to speak of the flow of Cuban refugees into the United States in generous terms. He said: "Ours is a country of refugees. Well continue to provide an open heart and open arms to refugees seeking freedom from Communist domination and from the economic deprivation brought about by Fidel Castro and his government." The sentiments were impeccable then and continue to be so today. But because they were uttered by the President of the United States they increased an already serious problem for his country and today stand in the way of an orderly management of an extremely difficult and even dangerous problem. The presidential promise of an "open heart and open arms" encouraged people with friends and relatives in Cuba to use or hire any boat they could lay hands on to go to Cuba. It encouraged persons owning boats to charter those boats. at sometimes very high fees. to bring refugees from Cuba to the United States. And now that the flood of refugees has become unmanageable. it makes It more difficult for the government to turn around and begin to shut off the flow which the President so recently was encouraging. The plain fact is that the offer of "open heart and open arms." no matter how generous. humane. and noble in sentiment. was also a mistake. Had the Presidents staff been functioning as a presidential staff ought to functionand had the President listened to his staffhe would never have committed or appeared to commit himself and his country to a course of action which could not be carried out without enormous dislocation. cost. pain. and frustration to more people than it could help.
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