By Larry Luxner

It was 1991, but Ambassador Vicki Huddleston remembers her first and only meeting with Fidel Castro like it was yesterday.

"We had just signed a tripartite agreement with Cuba on Angola and Namibia," she recalled with a touch of nostalgia. "Jeff Davidow was leading a delegation to Havana to witness the signing, and as the [State Department's] new director of Cuban affairs, I had to go. So Fidel
Castro offers this opulent reception at the Palacio de la Revolución, and the only two women there are me and the Soviet ambassador's wife.

"Fidel immediately comes over to our table, looks at me and says, 'And who are you? Someone's spouse?"

"I said, 'No, I'm the director of Cuban affairs.'

"Castro responds, 'Oh, I thought I was.'"