The Foreign Service Journal, November 2007

8 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / N O V E M B E R 2 0 0 7 L E T T E R S who, it was later discovered, had already fled to safety. Unbeknownst to the Americans, Vietnamese colo- nial troops manning French batteries mistook U.S. troops for Chinese soldiers and shelled them, killing six and wounding 17. Ironically, French friendly fire saved the U.S. from the ignominy of invading and then destroying the highly combustible sacred buildings of the Forbidden City. Nobody was home at the time except an unlikely enemy: scores of eunuch caretakers. Jose Armilla FSO, retired Vienna, Va. Getting to Cuba Even here in Nantucket, I am often able to lay my hands on a copy of the Foreign Service Journal , which I read with great interest and pass along to others who think about our many international problems. For almost two years, I have been trying to get a visa to go to Cuba in a lawful way. I have written directly to the U.S. Treasury Department’s Foreign Assets Control Board. I’ve also tried through the U.S. embassy in Athens while in Greece and through a congressional office. Of course, I could go to Cuba without a visa, as many have done. But that would do little to facilitate my goal of obtaining payment on my Republic of Cuba Bonds, which were issued in 1937 and defaulted in the early 1960s. The responsibility for authorizing travel to Cuba should be returned to the State Department. Long ago, before she came to State, I sent Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice a book about Charles III and the Spanish Armada. I guess the old saying that those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it holds as true today as when it was coined. Are we still overwhelmed by the legacy of the Cuban fiasco of the 1960s? Will we be in the same boat with Iraq in 2050? William Kuntz III Nantucket, Mass. Send your letter to the editor or “Speaking Out” column to: journal@afsa.org . Note that all submissions are subject to editing for style, format and length.