In 1977, when Barbara Walters (Baba Wawa in the late Gilda Radner's sketches on "Saturday Night Live") was in Cuba interviewing Castro, there were rumors in Cuba that transpired abroad that Miss Wawa - oops, Walters - had an affair with the despicable tyrant of that unfortunate island.

We may never know the truth about this alleged affair, since the members of the U.S. media are so protective of each other. Remember the case of the millionaire reporter Sam Donaldson receiving U.S. government subsidies for his wool farm? Probably not, because everything disappeared from the headlines very soon, including the reporter who uncovered the story.

Rumors are rumors, but sometimes they carry an iota of truth - Donaldson's situation certainly needs further explanation. And so does the Walters rumor, especially when so many significant foreign women visitors have ended up in the sack, or should I say hammock, with the ruler-for-life of Cuba.

Now ABC's "20/20" has treated us to a jovial 25-year television reunion - although Walters has seen him on other occasions, such as a few years ago when they dined together at the mansion of a wealthy capitalist in New York when Castro came to the United Nations.

But television is television, and ratings and MONEY are what it's all about for "20/20," "60 Minutes" and all those kinds of shows. And it was quite a show! Walters seemed to be debating between melting for his supposed charisma (which I fail to see, since his body language reflects a mental status comparable to Charles Manson) and the need she seemed to feel to ask important and revealing tough questions, as she has done with other personalities. Her usual professionalism was missing.

Castro, the consummate actor and pathological liar, succeeded once more in dancing around, his eyes full of admiration and fondness for Walters. And succeeded again when he fooled Walters with a supposedly spontaneous visit to schools and others places, where he was received as if he were the incarnation of Elvis Presley.

Nothing is really spontaneous in totalitarian Cuba, where people are commanded to cheer the very henchman cutting off their heads. The spontaneous display of rejection of Castro and his criminal regime is rarely seen in Cuba but is quite evident in the Florida Straits where, for 43 years, Cubans have been taking unthinkable risks to liberate themselves. There are many stories to tell from his millions of victims who live in exile all over the world, if Walters or any other U.S. reporter would care to interview them.

But as usual, Castro makes the news, not his victims.

It was insulting when Walters asked him about his private life and he claimed his "human right" to privacy. Well, he has deprived the Cuban people of that particular human right, as well as the rest of them, for all these years and Walters let it slip through. So Castro, the most inhumane tyrant in the Americas, owner of the island he stole and the grandest slave master in history, is the only one entitled to human rights.

How can Walters or anybody else feel admiration for this mass murderer who has caused the deaths of 105,000 people (31 of them Americans)? But he told Barbara that he has not killed any Americans, and Barbara didn't even hint at the 1996 Brothers to the Rescue incident in which three Americans and one U.S. resident were killed over international waters.

Barbara, Charles Manson killed a comparatively infinitesimal number of innocents and he is in jail for life, and you don't treat him with the respect and smiles you had for your longtime friend in Cuba.

Timothy McVeigh killed fewer people than Castro and he was rightfully vilified, sentenced to death and executed, while there are many Americans, including Barbara Walters, who look up to Castro with admiration. That is baffling.

And she let him get away with a huge brand new lie (he has been lying all his life; remember in 1957 and again in 1959 when he said that he was not a communist?) when he said that he did not ask Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev for a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the U.S. His request is in a personal letter from Castro to Khrushchev dated October 26, 1962, that is on record at the Kennedy Library (www.jfklibrary.org/cmc_castro_khrushchev).

So Castro, a manipulator of people and history, changed history thanks to the opportunity Ms. Walters presented to him, and she wistfully let it go by.

On the 40th anniversary of the closest we ever came to nuclear annihilation, a new spin is being created in which Castro becomes the savior.

On October 12, the day after the Walters and Castro reunion show, I read in the newspaper that Robert S. McNamara, on his pilgrimage to Cuba for the anniversary of the 1962 Missile Crisis, said that Castro, President Kennedy and Russian Leader Nikita Khrushchev had saved the world from nuclear war. Rather than being responsible for setting up the situation, they are heroes.

This is really outrageous and a shameful act of disinformation to Americans, who are already badly misinformed about Cuba by the U.S. media.

Since Kennedy and Khrushchev are dead, I will not be surprised if, after Jimmy Carter, Castro wins the Nobel Peace Prize next year for having saved the world from nuclear holocaust.

While NBC, ABC and CBS refused to give airtime to President Bush to explain to the American people about the serious issue of the war against Saddam Hussein, they fought among themselves to get an interview with Castro. They gladly prefer to expose the American public to the lies of a tyrant. Shouldn't they take some sort of moral responsibility for what they do?

And to close this jovial reunion of old flames, Barbara Walters called him "Mr. President." Castro has never been elected to anything in Cuba. He is self-appointed to all the positions he holds in his government in control of everything, for as long as he desires. Not my idea of a "president."

As a matter of fact, his complete government became illegitimate once he set aside the Cuban Constitution of 1940, which was a valid, democratically created constitution. He ruled Cuba from 1959 without a constitution, until he created that abominable 1976 Communist Constitution that officially deprives Cuban citizens of all rights, except the right to hail him and his revolution.

He is the Alpha and Omega of Cuba. The only thing to fear more is how it will come to an end.

Let's beware of the end; it might not be pretty for the Cubans and for the U.S. Remember that he wrote a letter (proudly displayed on the third floor of the Museum of the Revolution in Havana) dated June 5, 1958, to his secretary, the late Celia Sanchez, that says: "When this war is over, a much wider and bigger war will begin for me, the war I am going to wage against them [the U.S.]. I realize that this is going to be my true destiny."

He has been fulfilling that destiny since 1959, waging a covert war against the U.S. on all fronts as Cuba became a state that sponsors terrorism, associates with the most anti-American groups all over the world, and is part of the international terrorist network, all directed against the U.S.

Barbara Walters should examine why she feels such obvious fondness for a character like this.

Agustin Blazquez is producer/director of the documentaries "Covering Cuba," Covering Cuba 2: The New Generation," and the upcoming Covering Cuba 3: Elian," and author with Carlos Wotzkow of the book "Covering and Discovering."