ANOTHER KIND OF INVASION REACHES HAVANA

There are a lot of folks around here who can recall from personal experience the national tension that accompanied the failed assault on Cuba 40 years ago now referred to as the Bay of Pigs.

About 1,500 Cuban exiles were trained in Guatemala by the CIA to overthrow the Castro government that had seized power a few months before. In the three-day invasion, more than 1,000 of the invaders were captured, and 100 of them died. On the other side of the skirmish, 151 Cubans were killed.

While the U.S. embargo of Cuba remains in place and limits travel to the island nation off Florida's tip, another kind of invasion is taking place. Thousands of visitors are welcomed to Cuba every year, including hundreds of Americans who travel through another country first. And this week 60 Americans are in Havana as official guests -- many of them involved as advisers to the Kennedy administration.

This time, it's an invasion of reconciliation.