The Foreign Service Journal, March 2012

anything that smacked of defeat. He wisely refrained from a response in Lebanon, instead re-establishing his credentials by judicious use of force on more favorable terrain closer to home. This was the first and only time U.S. forces met Cubans in direct combat, and the encounter resulted in a setback so embarrassing for Castro that it exac- erbated Soviet-Cuban relations. Kenneth N. Skoug Jr. FSO, retired Alexandria, Va. Lee vs. Grant I was surprised that Jon P. Dorsch- ner, having been at West Point for two years, should make an extremely su- perficial comparison between Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant in his No- vember 2011 Speaking Out column (“Why the Foreign Service Should Be More Like the Army”). Though I am certainly not enam- ored of the cause Lee served from1861 to 1865, to use him as an example of someone who had too much ego — and “was defeated ... because he (Lee) did not understand ‘modern war’” — I found amazing. Lee’s defeat was more due to a lack of resources (materiel and manpower), combined with poor political support and, later, personal medical problems than by “a lack of understanding” of his profession. After studying the Civil War for many years, I think it is the very rare historian who would argue that Lee’s talents as a field commander and strategist did not extend the life of the Confederacy for considerably longer than it would have otherwise existed. The devotion shown to Lee by those serving in his army, from generals to privates, also contradicts the label of “egotism” applied to him by Mr. Dorschner. An episode during the 1864 Battle of the Wilderness in Vir- ginia, as described in a National Park Service brochure, illustrates this. In the midst of a particularly horrific phase of the battle, when it appeared the Confederate line might break, “Gen. Lee attempted to lead the Texas Brigade forward. The Texans implored Lee to go to the rear so he would not be killed. Soon, dozens of Texans were urging Lee to go back. Lee either ig- nored their pleas or in the noise of bat- tle did not hear them. “Finally, a staff officer grabbed the reins of Lee’s horse and led the horse and general to safety behind the lines. The ‘Lee to the Rear’ incident became one of the most famous events of the war. The Texans then proceeded for- ward, losing 500 of 800 men in the charge.” Soldiers do not typically show such concern for officers who are “egotisti- cal tools.” Stephen B. Flora FSO, retired Canberra, Australia Sochi, Russia In the December article, “Setting Up Shop in the Newly Independent States,” Mike Tulley writes about the time he “spent 24 hours on the tarmac in Sochi, Georgia, with Jim Paravonian and about 100 inebriated Georgian friends.” That must have been some layover, for Sochi is in Russia! While it is histor- ically Georgian, Sochi was last part of Georgia in the 15th century, except for a brief annexation by the Democratic Republic of Georgia (1918-1919). Jonathan Kulick Adviser Office of the State Minister of Georgia for Reintegration M A R C H 2 0 1 2 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 7 L E T T E R S