Word: brezhnevs
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...dominant impression from the visit was Brezhnev's insecurity about his forthcoming U.S. trip. Whatever Brezhnev's systems analysts might tell him of Moscow's emerging military parity, to him America seemed to be a land of superior technology and wondrous capacity, a country of marvelous efficiency compared to the cumbersome Soviet colossus. Brezhnev endlessly sought reassurance that he would be courteously received in America. I was touched by this insecurity...
During the Zavidovo visit, Brezhnev's vulnerability allowed a human contact that was not to recur. One afternoon I returned to my villa and found hunting attire, an elegant, military-looking olive drab, with high boots, for which I am unlikely to have any future use. Brezhnev, similarly attired, collected me in a jeep. I hate the killing of animals for sport, but Brezhnev said some wild boars had already been earmarked for me. Given my marksmanship, I replied, the cause of death would have to be heart failure. Still, I would be willing to go along...
Deep in the stillness of the forest a stand had been built about halfway up a tree, with a crude bench and an aperture for shooting. All was still. Only Brezhnev's voice could be heard, whispering hunting tales: of his courage when a boar once attacked his jeep; of the bison that stuffed itself with the bait laid out for other animals and then fell contentedly asleep on the steps of the hunting stand, trapping Soviet Defense Minister Marshal Rodion Malinovski in the tower above until a search party rescued...
...After Brezhnev felled a huge boar with a single shot, we moved to another stand even deeper in the forest. We remained there for some hours, and someone brought cold cuts, dark bread and beer from the jeep. Brezhnev's split personality-alternalively boastful and insecure, belligerent and mellow-was in plain view as we ate in that alfresco setting. The truculence appeared in his discussion of China. He spoke of his brother, who had worked there as an engineer before Khrushchev removed all Soviet advisers. He had found the Chinese treacherous, arrogant, beyond the human pale. They were...
...Brezhnev was clearly fishing for some hint of American acquiescence in a Soviet pre-emptive attack. I gave no encouragement; my bland response was that the growth of China was one of those problems that underlined the importance of settling disputes peacefully. Brezhnev returned to his preoccupation. China's growing might was a menace to everybody. Any military assistance by the U.S. would lead to war. I warned that history proved America would not be indifferent to an attack on China. (The next day the Soviet Ambassador to the U.S., Anatoli Dobrynin, stressed that the China portion...