MIAMI — No one familiar with Fidel Castro's oratory and ego is surprised that his autobiography runs more than 600 pages and concedes neither error nor excess during his nearly 50 years ruling Cuba.
What has surprised analysts has been his conciliatory approach to some of his erstwhile adversaries, including Presidents Kennedy, Clinton and Carter, the latter of whom he termed "a man of honor, an ethical man."
As Castro steps down from the presidency, "Fidel Castro: My Life," provides a panoramic view of the 81-year-old leader's years in power. The book, first published in Spain in 2006, was edited by Castro in his sickbed for release in the U.S. last month.
Throughout the book, Castro touts what he considers prime accomplishments of his revolution: universal literacy, free higher education, one of the world's lowest infant-mortality rates and a healthcare network that treats all Cubans for free and provides relief in the Third World and to victims of natural disasters from Pakistan to Haiti.
What does Castro regret in five turbulent decades that included the Bay of Pigs invasion, the Cuban missile crisis, the Mariel boatlift and the fall of communism across much of the world? Nothing, he says -- not the dissidents jailed for demanding elections, the rivals executed nor the thousands of lives lost in the Cuban military's "internationalist" deployments.
"I have not one iota of regret about what we've done in our country and the way we've organized our society," Castro told coauthor Ignacio Ramonet during more than 100 hours of interviews over three years, ending in December 2005.
Castro insists throughout the discourse that the communist nature of Cuba's revolution is "irrevocable." But he also warns that Cubans can kill off his life's work if they continue to follow the siren cries of capitalism and self-enrichment.
"This revolution can destroy itself. We, we can destroy it, and we would be to blame," he says.
Bellicose and swashbuckling, with his trademark fatigues and scruffy beard, Castro frequently outmaneuvered his powerful neighbor and archenemy over the second half of the 20th century.
Though a succession of U.S. presidents and hard-line Cuban exiles in Miami regarded him as a dictator who trampled on the rights of his people, Castro stood as a symbol for many Latin American leaders who envied his defiance of the powerful norteamericanos.
