Word: brezhnevs
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...shift in mood began in the first hours after Brezhnev's death two weeks ago. It grew more pronounced as Vice President George Bush and Shultz arrived in Moscow for the funeral, under specific instructions from President Reagan to emphasize U.S. willingness to ease tensions. Andropov, accompanied by Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko and Andrei Alexandrov-Agentov, an adviser on East-West relations, met with them and U.S. Ambassador Arthur Hartman for 30 min. in the brightly lit Green Room of the Kremlin. They discussed nuclear-arms control, Afghanistan and human rights, three of the prickliest issues between...
...that is far from the only, and not necessarily even the most pressing, matter on Andropov's mind. Besides receiving Bush and Shultz, the new Soviet boss plunged into a round of meetings with satellite, neutralist and even anti-Communist heads of government who were in Moscow for Brezhnev's funeral (see WORLD). Soviet officials sought to impress on Americans that, because their chief intends to move fast in establishing the main themes of his foreign policy, the U.S. has no time to lose in seeking a better relationship. Nor will the U.S. necessarily be pleased with...
...held for that purpose, Secretary of State Shultz asserted that "signals are fine" and the U.S. appreciated the "great courtesy" that Andropov had shown toward himself and Bush, but "the thing we are really looking for . . . is the substance of change in behavior." As Shultz noted, no sooner had Brezhnev been laid to rest than "it was as though someone threw a switch and suddenly martial music and a long march-by of troops. That was mood music too, I thought...
...could be sure that the leadership battle was definitely over. Although Andropov decisively occupied center stage at the elaborate ceremonies surrounding the funeral of his predecessor, Leonid Brezhnev, leaving any rivals far in the background, the country's gerontocratic leadership had not substantially changed. Only when Andropov faces this week's meeting of the 308-man Central Committee will his skills as a political infighter and his ambition to put his mark on the Soviet Union be tested...
...tone for the past week, indeed perhaps for the Andropov era, was set by the military honors that were accorded to Brezhnev on his final appearance in Moscow. The coffin carrying Brezhnev's body was borne from the House of Trade Unions, where it had lain in state for three days, by six high-ranking officers as a procession of generals and admirals carried his medals on red cushions. The coffin was placed on a gun carriage drawn by an amphibious army scout car, the modern-day Soviet equivalent of the traditional horse-drawn caisson. Soldiers with fixed bayonets...