AThe Marshall News Messenger Marshall, Texas Tuesday, August 24, 1965 - Page 4
Stuffy
The bureaucratic stuffiness of the Department of State was plainly revealed in its refusal to permit Bobby Fischer, 22-year-old U S. chess champion, to play in an international chess tournament in Cuba.
“He does not fall within the department's established criteria,” a spokesman for the department said.
The criteria, the spokesman adds, are: (1) A bona fide journalist. (2) a businessman with long-standing interests in Cuba, or 3) persons on humanitarian missions, such as relatives of prisoners or very ill Cubans.
The fact is that the Department of State could, and should, have endorsed Fischer's passport for travel to Cuba without damage to our national interest, the only worthwhile criterion that can he established. Communists and capitalists can be good chess players, but political ideology has nothing whatever to do with the game.
A better argument can be made that our national chess champion could enhance the prestige of the United States by playing and beating the masters of other countries. But no, the Department of State must take refuge in technicalities instead of being prepared to relax its requirements in special cases such as this.
