Sometimes you get a letter you have a hard time answering:
Dear Jay,
Cuba’s ambassador to the U.N., Mr. Díaz, has accepted an invitation to speak at our club. He will be interviewed by [one of the most powerful journalists in America]. There will also be an audience Q&A. Clearly, there are many topics one could discuss with His Excellency. I’d like to focus on political dissidents imprisoned in the Cuban gulag. I know you have dealt with this subject for years. Could you provide me some information to be used in forming questions for the ambassador? I’d appreciate it.
I’m afraid I could do no better than the following:
Dear sir:
Have to tell you: I don’t know what one could say. There’s a story about Lady Astor and Stalin, probably apocryphal. She meets him in the Kremlin and says, “Hello, Mr. Stalin. When are you going to stop killing people?” I don’t know what other question could be asked. Bill Buckley, by the way, refused to appear with Soviet mouthpieces — at a certain point, he made that a policy. Reason? They’re trained and commanded to lie. You can’t have a discussion with them.
Personally, I think it’s ghastly that your club issued such an invitation — gave to such a man such a platform. Cuban opponents of his regime aren’t free to speak, because they’re in jail (or dead — or exiled).
You could ask about some of those opponents: noble dissidents such as Oscar Biscet (whom President Bush awarded the Medal of Freedom, in absentia, of course). But I don’t know what good it would do. Díaz would simply lie. You could say, “America’s free press is very tolerant of the regime you serve. Sometimes, it is downright friendly. Does this surprise you, given that you have no free press at home?”
Look, I really don’t know — my apologies. I am awfully steeped in matters Cuban. But if I had the opportunity to question the Cuban ambassador, I don’t think I’d say a word. I just don’t see what there is to be gained.
When are you going to stop killing people? That stands as one of the best questions ever, if, indeed, it was asked.
P.S. This fellow’s club, and its event with Díaz: I bet it will focus on a) the evil of the American “embargo”; b) the evil of the Bush administration; c) the hope that Obama offers; d) the evil of the Cuban exiles, particularly those in South Florida; and e) the glory of the United Nations.
(Why do I bet this? I’ve been around.)
P.P.S. Earlier this year, I sat next to the Iranian foreign minister, during a press coffee. (This was Davos.) My colleagues asked questions, doing their best (eliciting nothing). I could mainly think of Lady Astor . . .