Club history snippet: When Fidel fibbed at a luncheon

1979 National Press Club President Art Wiese was one of the Club's greatest leaders and most ardent supporters. He was responsible for planning much of the reconstruction of the Club during the building renovation in the early 1980s. For years, he was a watchdog to assure that the Club maintained its tradition as a safe harbor for journalists and communicators.

In his later years, he put together a series of snippets on the Club's history. In honor of his passing this year, The Wire will run one of them each week. Here's another:

"Fidel Castro: Not every word spoken by a newsmaker at the National Press Club has proven to be true. In 1959, a young Fidel Castro addressed a Club luncheon, right after he and his guerrilla army had ousted Cuban strongman Fulgencio Batista. Castro insisted he had absolutely no intention of becoming a dictator himself. After that, no high-level Cuban diplomat was allowed back in Washington for 35 years. The National Press Club--where news is made (or, on occasion, fudged) in the nation's capital.'

Listen to the full audio of Castro's speech below, courtesy of The Library of Congress: