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Wednesday, 26 April 2006 |
 In Confidence: : Moscow's Ambassador to America's Six Cold War Presidents (1962-1986)
by
Anatoly Dobrynin
Publisher: Crown; 1st edition (September 11, 1995)
The most revealing account of the 40 years of the Cold War to have come
out of Russia.... No other ambassador in modern times has played such a
prolonged and crucial part in international affairs or has been
prepared to write about it so uninhibitedly.
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Amazon.com Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
This diplomatic history by the former Soviet ambassador to the U.S.
from 1962 to 1986 casts the Cold War as a saga of missed opportunities
and misunderstandings. Dobrynin believes that the ideologies of both
the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. perpetuated a wasteful, dangerous rivalry,
and he blames the collapse of detente on the growing influence of the
Soviet military-industrial complex, Moscow's overextension (e.g., in
Afghanistan), U.S. inflexibility in arms control and President Ronald
Reagan's bellicosity. Paradoxically, Dobrynin also credits Reagan for
opening a dialogue with Moscow during his second term. Drawing on his
own unpublished diaries and archival research, the ex-ambassador
charges that during the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, Moscow made him
an involuntary tool of deceit by keeping secret the deployment of
Soviet intermediate-range nuclear missiles in Cuba. He also divulges
that President Lyndon Johnson pushed for a negotiated end to the
Vietnam War in 1965 whereby the U.S. would accept any government in
South Vietnam, even if it eventually turned socialist. This monumental
chronicle is a fundamental source on Soviet-American relations. Photos
not seen by PW. Author tour.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Dobrynin, the Soviet
ambassador to the United States from the Kennedy through Reagan
administrations, here recounts vividly the many frightening Cold War
episodes that linger in the collective memory of the international
community. In moderate language, the diplomat who strove above all to
maintain cordial relations between the two superpowers discusses the
Cuban Missile Crisis, the Vietnam War, Afghanistan, and the Warsaw Pact
invasion of Czechoslovakia. The book's title refers to the
"confidential channel" that began with Dobrynin and Bobby Kennedy
testing each other out with ideas and fresh proposals via a more
informal communications network. This channel bypassed much of the
traditional foreign policy-making bureaucracy of both countries and
allowed for greater flexibility among negotiators. Dobrynin's memoir
reads surprisingly well for this type of book, even as he goes into
detail about specific meetings, crises, and American and Soviet
personalities. His opinions of the individual American presidents and
foreign policy leaders may challenge one's notion of Cold War political
heroes and goats. Highly recommended for larger public and all academic
libraries.
-?Stephen W. Green, Auraria Lib., Denver
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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