by Cal Ritchey The letter entrusted to Captain Ilia Tolstoy and Lieutenant Brooke Dolan II, in July 1942, may have been one of the most unusual pieces of mail to leave Washington over the signature of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The strangest thing about the letter, aside from its destination—Lhasa, Tibet—was the addressee: Jeisum Jampel Ngawang Lobzang Yishey Tenzing Gyatso. The name belonged to a Tibetan child born on 6 June 1935, who in 1940 was installed as the 14th Dalai Lama, secular and religious ruler of Tibet's population. Tolstoy and Dolan, both members of the fledgling Office of Strategic Services (OSS), had been assigned to carry the letter to the Dalai Lama as part of a two-pronged mission with both military and diplomatic implications. There were sound reasons behind the trip, though it's not clear exactly who—or which group—originated the mission. In April 1942, the Japanese had succeeded in cutting the Burma Road at Lashio, near the Chinese bord...