Word: gromyko
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...nearly half a century Andrei Gromyko, 78, has been the consummate Soviet diplomat -- dour, emotionless and undeviating from the Communist Party foreign policy line. "Grim Grom," he was called in the West, for his ever gloomy expression, which seldom betrayed what was on his mind. Now Gromyko, who was Foreign Minister for 28 years until taking the mostly ceremonial post of President in 1985, is allowing a rare insight into his thoughts. In Pamyatnoye (Remembrance), a two-volume, 850-page autobiography that is on sale in Moscow, Gromyko describes, among other things, the late Mao Zedong's proposal...
According to Gromyko, Mao suggested in 1958 that the U.S. could be induced to invade the mainland, possibly after an American nuclear attack, whereupon Chinese forces would retreat into the hinterlands and lure U.S. troops into a lethal trap. Mao suggested, Gromyko says, that the Soviet Union then join the assault on U.S. troops "with all its forces," an apparent reference to nuclear arms, which China did not possess until 1964. Gromyko writes of being "extremely surprised . . . because of the lightness with which he proclaimed a schedule of American aggression against China with the use of nuclear weapons...
...Gromyko's mostly leaden prose flutters when he describes a 1959 encounter with Marilyn Monroe at a Hollywood reception. "She was considered the embodiment of womanhood in the '60s," writes Gromyko. The star-struck diplomat sounds almost breathless when he recounts that Monroe "sat at a table across from us, literally five meters away." He adds, "As I was leaving, she suddenly called out, 'Mr. Gromyko, how are you?' She said it as if we were old friends." Gromyko dwells at length on Monroe's 1962 suicide, speculating that she was murdered by U.S. Government agents because of her supposed...
...General Secretary. By some accounts, however, KGB Chief Viktor Chebrikov hinted that his agency had compiled dossiers on corruption in the Moscow party apparatus that could be highly embarrassing to Grishin. (Chebrikov was then a candidate member of the Politburo; he has since moved up to full membership.) Andrei Gromyko, then Foreign Minister, carried the day with a nominating speech for Gorbachev during which he coined the now celebrated remark, "This man has a nice smile, but he has iron teeth." Gromyko's speech was surprising in two respects: it appears to have been improvised, and it contained none...
Americans sensed that Gorbachev and Eduard Shevardnadze, who had replaced Gromyko as Foreign Minister in July, had decided that INF was the one area where progress might be possible at the first Reagan-Gorbachev summit, which was to be held in Geneva in November. With that event looming, Karpov turned almost plaintive: "We have an opportunity to resolve some important issues in advance of the meeting of our leaders...