A SOVIET OFFICIAL WHO CAME TO LUNCH

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP65-00756R000600030013-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 2, 1998
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: June 15, 1953
• Content Type: NSPR

.4 Soviet Ofiieia1
arrangements are purely defensive and that
you Americans need only fear our Russian
Who Came To Lu:ic L ideas." Above all, he quoted Sir Winston
By Joseph and Stewart Alsop
JUN 15 ^ Ian
IT IS ODD to find oneself seated at a table
with the enemy. It is even odder to find
that the enemy is a small, rather nervous
man, with a thin face, long, honey-colored
hair, a smart double-breasted gabardine suit,
and a fondness for Lucky Strike cigarettes
and Seagram's VO whisky. This is how the
enemy looked, when the first secretary of
the Soviet Embassy agreed to lunch with
one of these reporters.
"People do not like to he seen with us
Russians," Mr. Fedoseev remarked as the
luncheon began. "This is why I was so sur-
prised when you telephoned me." Mr.
Fedoseev was not alone in his surprise. It
is a Washington reporter's job to talk to
diplomats-any diplomats. But no Soviet
diplomat had ever before ' agreed to meet a
"congenital murderer," as Andrei Vishinsky
once described these reporters.
Yet, across the endless gulf which
stretched out across the small restaurant
table, the luncheon was a rather genial
occasion. Mr. Fedoseev volunteered an ad-
miration for American literature. lie had
even, he remarked, taught his young daugh.
ter some American literature-"Your fa-
mous poem, 'I shoot an arrow into the hair.' "
Everybody in Russia, he said, learned
American literature, "like your great poem,
Hiawatha."
As the level steadily dropped in Mr.
Fedoseev's glass of Seagram's and soda
(which he had firmly ordered when offered
a Martini) a curious dual image of the man
began to appear. On the one hand, there
was a human being. Like other human be-
ings, Mr. Fedoseev was clearly fond of his
only daughter. Like other human beings,
lie was worried by such matters as the rent
of his apartment-"terribly, terribly high."
ON THE OTHER hand, there was the
official Fedoseev, the product of his system.
The contact established between one hu-
man being and another was instantly broken
when political matters came to the fore.
The tone of the conversation remained
good-humored, but the minds of the two
participants were separated, not by a table
top, but by half a world. Then the talk
became a futile game of check and double-
check:
"Who, after all, started the cold war?"
Mr. Fedoseev asked complacently, as if
there could be no doubt about the answer.
"You did," was the reply, "when you sup-
plied the Greek Communist guerillas."
"No, no, you did. The Fulton speech. Even
earlier."
fYou're
iled to
baijan."
right. It was earlier, when you
remove your troops from Azer-
"And who has troops in foreign countries
now? There are no Russian troops in Korea."
"You started the Korean
know it."
Once or twice the dialogue became so
obviously futile, that both participants
shrugged, and dropped the subject. But
Mr. Fedoseev, his superiors will be glad to
know, was persistent, clever, and well pre-
pared. He was obviously a student, not
only of the minor American classics, but of
.the American press.
He quoted Senator McCarthy: "Your
Senator McCarthy does not like us, no?
But he has said that the United Nations
Security Council decision on Korea was
illegal-just what we have said all along."
"Your Secretary Wilson says our military
Churchill, whose speech calling for an East.
West. meeting he seemed to have learned by
heart: "As Churchill said, in negotiating
it is necessary to consider not only the
security of the West, but also the security
of the East."
cv.s
AT TIMES, he sounded a little like a cat
attempting to reassure a nervous canary.
"Why do you fear us"" lie asked. "An at-
mosphere of fear is bad for businesslike
negotiations. Our policy is a policy of
peace," or again: "There is no reason be-
tween us for a war. We are the only two
great powers which have never fought. Did
we burn down the White House in 1812?"
The reply was obvious-"Some day you
might do a damn sight worse than burn
down our White House." But the luncheon
ended on a good-humored note.
Probably there will be no next time.
Enemies do not often or easily break bread
together, and it is not much use to do so
when there can be no real contact between
each other. But as Mr. Fedoseev's small
figure disappeared, walking rapidly and
nervously toward the Soviet Embassy, it
seemed a pity that this should be so. It
seemed a pity that the system which Mr.
Fedoseev serves, which imperils freedom
and may one day imperil the very existence
of the United Slates, should have trans-
formed this rather nice little man into the
enemy.
Russia Drops Demands
Oi F
pr key, Offers Pact
ANKARA, June 11 (1P).-
Russia has withdrawn its de-
mands for joint control of the
Dardanelles and its claims on
Turkish territory, an authorita-
tive source reported tonight.
There was no comment by
Turkish officials on the report.
The seci-official Anatolian News
Agency said only that the
"Soviet government has made
a declaration to our Ambassa-
dor at Moscow" and that "pub-
lic opinion will be enlightened
on this issue after the neces-
sary reply has been made by
our government."
The authoritative source said
Russia has offered Turkey an
arrangement for joint defense
in the Black Sea. The Russian
proposals were received in a
note relayed today by the Turk-
ish Embassy in Moscow, the
informant said. He added that
Turkish officials received the
note with calmness almost
amounting to indifference.
Russia in 1945 canceled Its
treaty of friendship with Turkey.
The Russians demanded joint
control of the Turkish straits
and also supported claims by the
Republdoltof the'KamI.dahan
and Artvin border provinces in
northeastern Turkey.
The informant here, who is
close to Turkish officialdom but
declined to be quoted by name,
said the Turkish government
will not make a hasty reply to
the Soviet note but will "give the
note a cool appraisal to deter-
mine its real value."
He recalled that Turkey had
remained calm when Russia
made its demands eight years
ago and, although then without
allies and surrounded by the
Russians and their satellites, re-
jected those demands flatly.
The three provinces which
Russia claimed, along with the
oil-rich Batum district, were
part of the old Ottoman Turkish
Empire but were ceded to Rus-
sia after the Russo-Turkish War
of 1877-'78. The Brest-Litovsk
treaty which Germany forced
the new Bolshevik regime in
Russia to sign near the end of
World War I returned the ter-
ritories, whose population was
largely Moslem, to Turkey. Later,
Lenin and Kemal Ataturk agreed
that Batum should be Russian,
while the other three areas
Approved For Release 2002/07/22 : CIA-RDP65-00756R000600030013-9