The Foreign Service Journal, June 2015

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JUNE 2015 11 Service has never been adequately rec- ognized. Thomas, then a political officer at Embassy Mexico City, believed that Lee Harvey Oswald’s six-day visit to Mexico City, and his contacts with the Cuban and Soviet embassies there, only six weeks before the assassination, had potential significance that the supposedly defini- tive Warren Commission report had failed to probe in sufficient depth. Out of my affection and deep respect for Charles Thomas, I’mmoved to bring this new recognition of him to your read- ers’ attention. I served with him in Haiti during my first FS assignment from 1962 to 1963 and was fortunate to have had him as my mentor. Thomas was 37 years old when he arrived in Haiti in 1961. Port-au-Prince was his third post after Ghana-Liberia and Tangier-Morocco in Africa. As the embassy’s political officer, he had the lead in reporting on the situation in Haiti, a country dominated by its radical presi- dent, Francois Duvalier. With Fidel Castro a looming threat to the Caribbean area, the United States and Haiti were thrown together in an uncomfortable and unpre- dictable relationship. Thomas’ reporting was widely circulated and regarded as brilliant. Indeed, Thomas was a bright, ener- getic officer, who was much admired and from whommuch was expected. He was an expert linguist. He had served as a naval officer and fighter pilot. He had completed law school and passed the bar. To us, his colleagues, Thomas was the epitome of an American FSO: loyal, devoted and hardworking. The news of his onward assignment to Embassy Mexico City struck us as well- deserved recognition of his talents. The subsequent news of his selection out of the Foreign Service was a shock for those