Word: kosygin
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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There was one dramatic session during the summit-on Viet Nam. Held at Brezhnev's dacha outside Moscow, it pitted Nixon against a troika of Soviet leaders: Party Boss Brezhnev, Premier Aleksei Kosygin and President Nikolai Podgorny...
Where Brezhnev had been emotional, Kosygin was analytical; where Brezhnev had pounded the table, he was glacially correct, though in substance the most aggressive of the troika. He recalled his conversations with Lyndon Johnson, who had first predicted victory and failed. He implied the same fate for Nixon. He hinted that Hanoi might reconsider its previous refusal to permit forces of other countries to fight on its side-prompting Nixon to retort that we were not frightened by that threat...
...Kosygin suggested that we get rid of Thieu; he was reasonably sure such a proposal would be accepted by Hanoi. (So were we. We did not think we required Soviet help to surrender.) Podgorny concluded the presentations. His epithets were the equal of his colleagues', though his delivery was blander and his tone actually milder...
Among our own experts Kosygin had the reputation of being more liberal than Brezhnev. I considered that a superficial judgment. As Prime Minister, he was in operational control of day-to-day activities of the Soviet government-outside of the security and foreign policy fields...
Inevitably, this produced a certain pragmatism. He could speak eloquently about the advantages of increased commerce with the United States, though he never failed to claim that he was doing us the greater favor by opening up the Soviet market to our exports. But outside the economic area, Kosygin struck me as orthodox if not rigid. It seemed almost as if he compensated for managerial pragmatism by the strictest piety on ideological matters...