In Confidence: : Moscow's Ambassador to America's Six Cold War Presidents

697 Pages·1997·5.01 MB·English

by  Anatoly Dobrynin

IN
CONFIDENCE

ANATOLY DOBRYNIN
IN
CONFIDENCE
MOSCOW'S AMBASSADOR
TO AMERICA'S SIX
COLD WAR PRESIDENTS
( 1962-1986)
T I M ES B O O KS
R A N D OM H O U SE
With love to my wife Irina,
who shared it all and made this book possible
Copyright © 1995 by Anatoly Dobrynin
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American
Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by
Times Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and
simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
This work was originally published in hardcover by Times Books, a division
of Random House, Inc., in 1995.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Dobrynin, Anatoliy Federovich
In confidence : Moscow's ambassador to America's six Cold War
presidents / by Anatoly Dobrynin.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-8129-2894-6
1. Dobrynin, Anatoliy Fedorovich, 1919— . 2. Ambassadors—
Soviet Union—Biography. 3. United States—Foreign relations—
Soviet Union. 4. Soviet Union—Foreign relations—United States.
5. United States—Foreign relations—20th century. 6. Soviet Union—
Foreign relations—1953—1975. 7. Soviet Union—Foreign relations—
1975-1985. I. Title.
DK275.D63A3 1995
327.2'092—dc20
[B] 95-11611
Designed by Beth Tondreau Design I Robin Bentz
Random House website address: http://www.randomhouse.com/
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
9 8 7 6 5 4 32
First Edition
CONTENTS
A C K N O W L E D G M E N TS XV
I N T R O D U C T I ON 3
B E F O RE W A S H I N G T ON
I. My Diplomatic Career Begins 13
From Engineering to Diplomacy 13
Diplomacy from Litvinov: Table Manners from Princess Volkonsky 16
My Apprenticeship at the Ministry 19
II. My First Look at the United States 25
Learning the Diplomatic Ropes 25
Across the Country with Molotov 28
Back to Moscow as Molotovs Assistant 31
A Tour at the United Nations 33
III. Summits: The View from the Other Side of the Peak 37
The Geneva, Summit: Eisenhower and Khrushchev 37
The Collapse of the Paris Summit 40
Khrushchev and Kennedy at Vienna 43
Surprise: I Am Appointed Ambassador to the United States 47
W A S H I N G T ON
THE KENNEDY PRESIDENCY, 1961-1963 53
I. Finding My Way Around Washington 53
Instructions from Moscow 53
The Confidential Channel 54
An Ambassador's Life 57
Meeting President Kennedy and the Washington Establishment 60
The Diplomatic Stalemate over Germany and Berlin 65
Cuba Looms 71
vi • C O N T E N TS
II. The Cuban Crisis 74
Khrushchev Offers Nuclear Missiles to Cuba: Castro Accepts 74
Soviet Embassies Are Left Out of the Loop 77
The Crisis Erupts: In the Center of the Settlement 81
A Timely Question and Answer Break the Deadlock 89
After the Crisis: Lessons and Footnotes 94
III. Learning to Live Together 100
Setting Up the "Hot Line" 100
The Old Problems Reappear 102
Negotiations on the Nuclear Test Ban 103
My Last Meeting with John E Kennedy 109
President Kennedys Assassination 111
The Kennedy Era Reconsidered 114
THE JOHNSON PRESIDENCY, 1963-1969 119
I. Getting to Know the New President 119
Johnson's Foreign Policy 119
My First Meeting Alone with Johnson 123
Life as a Soviet Diplomat 126
II. Moscow and Vietnam 132
A Palace Coup in Moscow 132
Johnson's Triumphant Election 137
Brezhnev versus Kosygin. Vietnam Escalates 138
The War Party in Washington 141
Our Own Vietnam Syndrome 144
III. Trying to Juggle Peace and War 146
Johnson Stakes His Presidency on Ending the War 146
Moscow's Concern about Vietnam 148
Mixed Results in Disarmament 151
McNamara, Nuclear Strategy, and the ABM 156
IV. Soviet Policy Seeks a Steady Course 160
Kosygin Tries to Mediate in Vietnam 160
The Politburo Outlines the Basis of Soviet Foreign Policy 161
The Six-Day War 163
The Glassboro Summit 167
C O N T E N TS • v ii
V. The Fall of Lyndon Johnson 173
Vietnam Becomes "Johnson's War" 173
The Resignation Gambit Fails 173
Humphrey Declines Moscow's Secret Offer to Help His Election 179
Johnson Seeks a Summit to the Bitter End: It Dies in Prague 182
The Invasion of Czechoslovakia 183
Johnson Presses for a Summit to the Bitter End 189
THE NIXON PRESIDENCY, 1969-1974 196
I. Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger 196
Soviet-American Relations in the 1970s 196
Enter Nixon and Kissinger 201
Negotiating with the Nixon Administration 206
'Washington and Moscow in 1970: A Year of Drift and Doubt 211
II. Summit Foothills 214
Gromyko and Andropov Want to Drive a Hard Bargain 214
SALT, ABM, and the Summit 216
Maneuvering Toward the Summit: China in the Wings 221
III. A Geopolitical Triangle 231
Enter China 231
Nixon Opens a Dialogue with Brezhnev 233
Pre-Summit Maneuvers 238
War Between India and Pakistan 240
IV. To the Summit 244
Kissinger and I Start Work on the Summit 244
Tripartite Diplomacy 245
Vietnam and the Summit 248
The Summit in Moscow 256
Basking in Detente 262
Moscow, Washington, and the End of the Vietnam War 265
V. To the Summit Again, in America 270
Detente and Its Problems 270
Jewish Emigration and the Coalition Against Detente 271
Nixon Reshapes His Government 275
Brezhnev Makes Kissinger "Sign for It" 278
Brezhnev in America 281
Aftermath of the Summit 289
v l ii • C O N T E N TS
VI. The October War 292
Moscow, Washington, and the Middle East 292
The War Begins 294
Kissinger's Maneuvers 297
A New Crisis 299
The Superpower Stakes Rise: A U.S. Combat Alert Is Declared 302
The End of the War: Nixon Becomes Apologetic 303
VII. The Fall of Richard Nixon 307
Nixon's Last Friend 307
Rumblings in the White House 310
Summit Preparations Again 313
Watergate, the White House, and the Kremlin 315
The Last Summit 317
Nixon's Last Days 320
THE FORD PRESIDENCY, 1974-1977 324
I. Searching for the Real Gerald Ford 324
Starting Out with the New President 324
My Dinner with Nelson Rockefeller: The Middle East 328
My Granddaughter and Ford Divide the Globe 330
On to Vladivostok with Ford 332
Jewish Emigration and Detente 339
Ford versus Nixon 344
II. The Erosion of Detente 347
Thunder on the Right 347
The Fall of Saigon 348
The Helsinki Conference and Its Aftermath 350
The Difficult Road to the Summit 352
Intelligence Wars 357
III. How Appeasing the Right Helped Ford Lose the Presidency 365
Angola 365
Turmoil in the White House over Detente 370
Henry Kissinger's Swan Song 372
Ford versus Carter, as Moscow Saw Them 375
Ford Loses the Election 377
C O N T E N TS • 1 x
THE CARTER PRESIDENCY, 1977-1981 379
I. The Contradictions of Jimmy Carter 379
Jimmy Who? 379
Friendly First Soundings 381
Carter's New Team 385
Face to Face with Carter 388
The Carter Crusade 391
SALT and Human Rights 393
Moscow Stands Firm 395
The Price for Trying Too Much 397
Trying to Pick Up the Pieces 399
Sounding Out a Summit 402
II. Carter's Muddled Priorities 407
Hung Up on the Horn of Africa 407
Confusion Grows about Detente: Cooperation or Confrontation? 413
Downhill into Deadlock 417
III. The Summit with Carter 420
Reviving the Arms Race 420
Carter Pushes for a Summit 422
The Ascent to Vienna 424
The Summit in Vienna 427
Down from the Summit into the SALT Marshes 432
The Cuban Mini-Crisis 433
Europe as an Arena of Confrontation 434
IV. Afghanistan 439
The Background of Intervention 439
The Die Is Cast 442
Afghanistan and Soviet-American Relations 448
Diplomacy and Presidential Emotion 454
V. Carter's Defeat: An Epitaph for Detente 461
Deadlock on the Eve of the Elections 461
Courting Moscow Before the Election 463
Carter's Defeat 471
VI. The Dismantling of Detente 473