AThe News Journal Wilmington, Delaware Wednesday, August 11, 1965 - Page 22
Not 'Within the Criteria'
Why Can't Bobby Fischer, the United States chess champion, go to Cuba to compete in the Capablanca Memorial Tournament against players from many other countries?
Because the State Department says he can't. In denying him a passport, the department has explained that “he does not fall within the department's established criteria.”
More's the pity. Bobby Fischer is one of the few people in this country who stands a chance of beating the Russians at the game they call their own. It seems as if the State Department is passing up a chance to score a few points at the expense of the Communists by not taking the risk that Mr. Fischer's renowned temper will get him into trouble.
Aside from that, Mr. Fischer holds credentials as a writer from two magazines—Saturday Review and Chess Life. Accredited journalists have always been allowed to go to Cuba, and the State Department has not always been so choosy about the credentials—as witness the case of a Wilmington-area social worker who was permitted to go a few years ago after he succeeded in getting credentials from a small Philadelphia publication.
But in breaking its own rule, the State Department declared that a journalist can't just be a journalist. He has to be a “bona fide journalist.”
This may not be the ultimate absurdity in the State Department's passport policy vis-a-vis Cuba, but it is pretty close to it. The State Department should reexamine the case. As matters now stand, the country stands to lose more than it gains from this strict application of policy.
