In a 2007 book by Conor O'Clery entitled The Billionaire Who Wasn't, which is a fascinating and uplifting tale of the unprecedented philanthropy of Charles Feeney and his group The Atlantic Philanthropies, there is mention of Cuba. For instance, we learn that the island nation has been the recipient of some of Mr. Feeny's philanthropy and the roundabout way he had to operate to remain completely legal given U.S. law (Mr. Feeney is a U.S. citizen). Too, we hear about his meetings with such Cuban leadership figures as Fidel Castro and Ricardo Alarcón.

But it's the remarks of Mr. Feeney's daughter, as recorded by Mr. O'Clery, that really struck a resonant chord with me. I had earlier in the book learned that Mr. Feeney has accomplished miracles in Vietnam and other countries, including his ancestral homeland, Ireland, and Australia and South Africa. Then, at the head of chapter 31, Mr. O'Clery describes Mr. Feeney in Feeney's daughter Juliette's words: "Like Vietnam, Cuba had gotten a raw deal from the United States, he believed. Cuba and Vietnam came from the idea of righting an American wrong."

In other words, perhaps the greatest philanthropist in U.S. history knows how remarkably flawed U.S. Cuba policy has been for many, many years and is doing what he can to begin to rectify that wrong.

It is time the U.S. government helped him.

In Mr. O'Clery's book, as you read about this remarkable man, Chuck Feeney, not only do you gain insight into a remarkable heart, soul, and business mind but you also learn how a group of very dedicated people set out to reverse—is "pay for" too strong a phrase?—the crimes of U.S. policy.

Not with any noticeable sense of guilt or angst but with a straightforward altruism that recognizes governments for the flawed establishments they are, recognizes men and women who work in governments for the timid and conforming creatures that they by habit and custom must inevitably become, and uses the extraordinary entrepreneurial talents of a single man and his trusted colleagues to counteract these realities. It is a sublime story, as profound as the words of Noble Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney's lyrics, quoted on page 268 of O'Clery's book:

History says, don't hope
On this side of the grave,
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up
And hope and history rhyme.

President Obama, let's get busy and help Mr. Feeney make hope and history rhyme for Cuba.

-- Lawrence Wilkerson

[Ed. note: The New America Foundation which hosts The Havana Note is a recipient of grants from the Atlantic Philanthropies. The comments made by Col. Wilkerson are his own.]