Word: dobrynin
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...never forgot that Dobrynin was a member of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party; I never indulged in the conceit that his easy manner reflected any predisposition toward me or toward the West. I had no doubt that if the interests of his country required it he could be as ruthless or duplicitous as any other Communist leader. But I considered his unquestioning support of the Soviet line an asset, not a liability: it enabled us to measure the policies of his masters with precision. Occasionally he would give me his personal analysis of American politics; without exception...
...Dobrynin was free of the tendency toward petty chiseling by which the run-of-the-mill Soviet diplomat demonstrates his vigilance to his superiors: he understood that a reputation for reliability is an important asset in foreign policy...
...Dobrynin, usually genial, was all business. Were we claiming that the 1962 understanding had been violated? I dismissed this as a legalistic quibble. Cuba, to us, was a place of extreme sensitivity. We considered the sequence of events as acts of extremely bad faith. The installations had been completed with maximum deception; they could not remain. Whatever the phraseology of the 1962 understanding, its intent could not have been to replace land-based with sea-based missiles...
...Soviets took us seriously. We returned to Washington on Oct. 5 from Nixon's trip. Dobrynin came in the next day with a message that concluded with a precise commitment that no base was being built in Cuba...
...clearly positive. After my press statement, construction of port facilities ceased. But nothing with the Soviets ever works this simply. The Soviet sub tender and salvage tug left Cienfuegos on Oct. 10, but rounded the island and arrived once again in Cienfuegos on Nov. 7. I protested angrily to Dobrynin on Nov. 14 and told him later that servicing submarines in or from Cuban ports would "lead to the most grave situation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union...