And the people of Cuba have been suffering for it ever since.

February 24, 2007—Fifty years ago today, The New York Times ran a front-page love letter to Fidel Castro at a crucial moment in the Stalinist thug’s drive to take control of the Cuban people.

Timesman Herbert Matthews’ 4,400-word article disproved government claims that the rebel leader was dead. More important, it portrayed him as the popular commander of thousands of like-minded revolutionaries - and so gave Castro international stature.

Alas, the story was a tissue of lies.

Still, as former Times executive editor Max Frankel has written, it “practically invented Fidel Castro for the American people.” Without it, Castro might well never have risen to power in Cuba.

Now the ailing Communist dictator is formally acknowledging the big favor he got from the Times.

The Cuban state news agency Prensa Latina reported last week that the government has unveiled a marble plaque commemorating Matthews’ interview at the remote location where it took place in the Sierra Maestra mountains.

There’s no denying that Matthews was infatuated with the 30-year-old revolutionary, who granted his first-ever interview to the Times. “Thousands of men and women are heart and soul with Fidel Castro and the new deal for which they think he stands,” wrote Matthews.

Yet as Castro later gleefully admitted, his entire force at the time consisted of just 18 men. Matthews never caught on to the fact that he was seeing the same people, who kept going past him in circles.

The Times should start a special tribute room and hang a picture of Matthews, and this plaque from Cuba’s cruel dictator honoring him, up next to a photo of Walter Duranty...another famed reporter for the Times who was an apologist for a communist dictator.