AThe Des Moines Register Des Moines, Iowa Tuesday, August 10, 1965 - Page 4
Iron Curtain Bureaucracy
The State Department has denied Bobby Fischer, the United States chess champion, a passport authorization to travel to Cuba to play in the Capablanca Memorial Tournament in Havana. An official of the department said that Fischer “does not fall within the department's established criteria.”
How utterly stupid and how typically bureaucratic. This action and the reason for it sound exactly like Moscow.
What harm could Bobby Fischer do to the United States by traveling to Cuba and playing in a chess tournament with players from many other countries? Of course he might display his temperament and complain about the rules or refuse to play. But he does that sort of thing frequently anyway—and if he did it in Cuba, the United States probably could survive the shock.
The State Department bars teachers, students, artists and most other Americans from going to Cuba and learning something about the place and Fidel Castro's regime. It does allow accredited journalists to travel there, but even though Fischer was accredited to write pieces for the Saturday Review and Chess Life, he was ruled out—apparently because he is only a part-time journalist.
This Iron Curtain philosophy of the State Department with regard to Cuba does not serve the security of the United States well. It only makes this free and powerful nation look timid. It prevents the human contacts with Cubans which are so vital to understanding—both American under-standing of the Cuban regime and Cuban understanding of the American people.
