In Confidence: Moscow's Ambassador to Six Cold War Presidents

by Anatoly Dobrynin, Anatoliy Fedorovich Dobrynin

Release Date: May, 2001

Edition: Paperback

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Fascinating, but remember the regime he served

Prior to the Gorbachev era Soviet memoirs were stultifying party-line tomes that were virtually unreadable as serious history. Now we can read what Soviet diplomats really thought. Dobrynin's memoirs are fascinating because I have always wondered what he thought of Soviet/American relations and his American adversaries. Dobrynin thinks Bobby Kennedy was an immature alarmist. He has sympathy for Dean Rusk's despair over Viet Nam and Richard Nixon's fall over Watergate. He is amused by a pathetic attempt at a summit by a lame duck LBJ. He is frustrated by Carter and Reagan and bemused by Brezezinski's tough guy act towards the Soviet Union. Great stuff.
Dobrynin clearly loved being Soviet Ambassador to the US, particularly during the Nixon administation when Dobrynin had his famous "back channel" with Kissinger. Dobrynin could attend lavish embassy parties and enjoy freedom and celebrity status in the US. He is clearly bitter when Gorbachev recalled him and kicked him upstairs to a powerless post in the USSR. Dobrynin blames Gorbachev for diplomatic blunders that led to the fall of the Soviet Union. Dobynin's tone in his memoir is smooth and his book is well-written. He seems more like an ambassador from Britain and therein lies the greatest unstated paradox of Dobrynin's memoir: He represented the Soviet Union, not a democracy. Unlike Dobrynin, the people of the Soviet Union could not attend lavish parties, read, travel or speak freely. The nation that he repesented was a closed society that erected the Berlin Wall, indoctrinated its citizens in Marxist dogma and abused psychology and any science to keep its citizens obediant. The secret police used torture and imprisonment to enforce Communist rule. Dobrynin was a pillar of that system. This is why - despite all the anecdotes and bon mots - the most disturbing implication of Dobrynin's memoirs for me is that intelligent, cultured people like Dobrynin allow themselves to ammorally deny the humanity of others in the name of self-serving ambition.

Insightful

This book is an incredibly insightful and very balanced view of the Cold War and the warriors themselves, both in the USSR and the US. Dobrynin gives a balanced view of the mistakes that people in both countries made, as well as where they succeeded. I especially found the description of the Cuban Missile Crisis fascinating, as well as Moscow's reaction to Watergate and the resignation of Nixon.

Furthermore, this book helped me understand Andrei Gromyko and ---Brezhnev, two people whose names I've heard but I know little about. By reading this book, you will understand more about how the former Soviet government worked, the influence the Politburo had, and how they viewed the US.

What I liked best about this book was that it was balanced. Dobrynin never portrays a bias towards his country, indeed he often points out the errors that they make, and how he disagrees with them. Similarly, he is not at all "out to get" the US as the media portrays USSR/US relations. On the contrary, it is clear that he has much respect and affection for our country, which was his home for nearly 30 years.

The only reason for 4 stars instead of 5, is at times the subject matter would get slightly tedious. I understand that the main issue between the US and the USSR was nuclear arms treaties, however reading about them for 700 pages did tend to get me bogged down periodically.

I highly recommend reading this book for a first hand account of all the behind the scenes machinations between the man who was repeatedly the "confidential channel" between Washington and the Kremlin. Dobrynin was the only player from either country to be present at all summits between the US and the USSR during the Cold War, and was the Ambassador to the US during most of that time. As Presidents changed, and Party Secretaries in Moscow, Dobrynin was a constant. Read all about it here.