The Foreign Service Journal, December 2019

58 DECEMBER 2019 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL had stolen Bongo from him as he was leaving Argentina. After reporting on the circumstances surrounding the allegation, I was to return the dog to von Blanton immediately. I went hat in hand to Bongo’s hosts, who tearfully agreed to return him. After a series of required inoculations (at my own expense), and with proper Argentine and U.S. paperwork, Bongo was off to quarantine and, eventually, to von Blanton’s waiting arms. End of story … almost. Sometime in the early 1970s, I received a letter from the American consul general in Milan, in which he regretted to informme “of the death of your friend, Mr. Conrad von Blanton, after a fall from his hotel room window.” Enclosed was another letter addressed to me from von Blanton. In it, he expressed his gratitude for everything I had done for him in Buenos Aires and for my being someone he could always depend on. He was sorry if he had caused me trouble and would always remember me fondly as his closest friend. During the more than a year I knew Conrad von Blanton, there were always problems, drama and tension with whatever he brought to my attention. Yet however frustrating and difficult he might have been, he was a gentle soul tortured by things beyond his control, and it seemed that he deserved a better best friend. And a better death than whatever sent him from that hotel window. n Enclosed was another letter addressed to me from von Blanton. In it, he expressed his gratitude for everything I had done for him in Buenos Aires and for my being someone he could always depend on.