The date is Feb. 24, 1996, and Fidel Castro's MiGS have just shot down -- destroyed -- two planes over the Florida Straits in international waters, killing four young men on a humanitarian search-and-rescue mission. Later we would learn that Castro's pilots had gloated over their terrible deed in a radio transmission to their base.

A stunned Miami community reacted with indignation, trying to comfort the families with thousands of condolences. The immediate reaction by the Clinton administration was to halt its efforts to soften trade sanctions against Castro.

That fateful day came to mind again recently when I heard that President Clinton would license the Baltimore Orioles to play exhibition baseball in Havana ``to demonstrate the United States's compassion for the Cuban people.''

Whatever one here might think of this and the other measures recently announced by the White House -- expanding remittances, authorizing the sale of food and agricultural inputs, expanding charter flights and implementing direct mail service -- it remains to be seen what response an unrepentant Castro will make to this new set of unilateral concessions.

Unfortunately, these latest policy adjustments appear to be related to a vigorous lobbying campaign ``to review the U. S. embargo on trade with Cuba,'' which -- despite a bipartisan congressional consensus in support of sanctions -- has more to do with narrow business interests and those who would like to save the last remaining Marxist experiment in our hemisphere than with U. S. national interests.

One issue, so far ignored, that might benefit from honest revision is the administration's decision, reversing 40 years of policy, to use U. S. service men and women -- not to defend freedom as they continue to do in the four corners of the world -- but to intercept and capture on the high seas innocent Cuban men, women and children fleeing oppression and then return them to Castro's police.

Another administration policy comes to mind: Two days after the downing of the Brothers' planes, President Clinton called the crime ``a flagrant violation of international law.'' The President said then that the ``attack was an appalling reminder of the nature of the Cuban regime -- repressive, violent, scornful of international law.''

After the murders of Armando Alejandre Jr., Carlos Costa, Mario de la Pe a and Pablo Morales, President Clinton received their mothers, wife and other family members at the White House. The President promised then that he would not rest until the assassins were brought to justice. The families believed the President.

Almost three years have gone by. The culprits are known to the United States. The International Civil Aviation Organization, after a protracted inquiry, determined that -- as American radar had shown -- the crime had taken place in international air space. Following the London detention and indictment of Chile's Gen. Augusto Pinochet, eight members of Congress appealed to President Clinton ``to initiate similar efforts to bring to justice the Cuban dictator'' for the murder of Armando, Carlos, Mario and Pablo.

It is difficult for those of us who admittedly do not have the responsibilities of the President to understand the complexities of world politics. But I do know one thing: If a Spanish judge can institute proceedings in England against Gen. Pinochet, then the President of the United States surely can initiate similar proceedings against Castro for the premeditated murder of Americans in international airspace.