Herbert L. Matthews charged last night that the Cuba problem has been "over-simplified and distorted in the United States, and this oversimplification has brought on the failure of U.S. policies toward Cuba."

Speaking to the Harvard-Radcliffe International Relations Council in Burr Hall, the New York Times correspondent who visited Fidel Castro when he was a revolutionary in the Sierra Madre said Castro has succeeded in making a social revolution.

"The Cuban revolution may be a failure economically," Matthews said, "but economics alone do not determine the success or failure of a revolution. When Castro and his followers seized power in 1959, they saw around them extreme social imbalance, unending corruption, and the tragic farce of democracy and capitalism.

Matthews repeatedly attacked the "black and white" attitude of the United States toward Cuba. "The Eisenhower administration never made any distinction in practice between a radical nationalist revolution and a Communist revolution. The Communist Party does not run Cuba--Castro does. In the long run, this may be a very important distinction, and not only in Cuba. The Chilean Com- munists, for example, are Chileans first and Communists second."

In a question period after the talk, Matthews said that the U.S. has "built our own iron curtain around Cuba, in not letting teachers and students visit the island." He added that the New York Times has been unable to obtain a visa to send a correspondent to Cuba