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CAN RUSSIA AND THE U.S.
REALLY GET ALONG?
What do the United States and
the Soviet Union expect from
c loser relations? Can these
two nations real/y patch up
their differences?
K
SSIA AND
the United States
have never directly fought
each other in a war. Both
have, in fact, been allies in war.
Why, then, have the United
States and Russia looked suspi–
ciously at eacb other since the close
of World War
11?
Why have these
two peoples feared, and at times
hated, each other since the time
both worked together to bring the
Axis Powers and Imperial Japan
down to defeat?
What Are the Russian
People Like?
Today, the average American
does not like the Soviet Union. He is
highly suspicious of Soviet motives.
Yet Americans and otber West–
emers who have visited tbe Soviet
Union, generally speaking, have
given favorable, if not glowing ac–
counts of the hospitality and general
friendliness which they received
from the average Russian wbile vis–
iting the U.S.S.R.
This was true of the recent visit
Pre~ident
Nixon ond Communist Porty
chief Brezhnev ot San Clemente, the
Westem White House, during Brezhnev's
recent visit to the United Stotes.
Don
lorton -
Plain Truth
PLAIN TRUTH October 1973
by
Roymond F. McNoir
my wife and
1
made to the Soviet
Union. Though the customs, lan–
guage and architecture may have
been quite different from wbat we
were used to, yet we received the
distinct impression that the average
Russian was very interested in and
friendly toward America.
A few weeks before our arrival in
the U.S.S.R., we had to finalize
sorne travel arrangements with offi–
cials of the Russian Embassy in
Bangkok, Thailand. We were, even
then, quite impressed with the
friendliness,
if
not effusiveness, of
the Russians whom we met there.
The Soviet official at the Bangkok
Embassy must have gone out of
bis
way
to make our stay in Russia happy, for
we were given tbe red-carpet treat–
ment from the time we reached
Moscow International Airport until
we arrived at our hotel. We were
taken from tbe airport to our hotel in
a beautifully carpeted limousine
roughly comparable to a Cadillac.
Everywhere, we were treated with
courtesy and respect. Our con–
clusion? The Russian people are,
generally speaking, quite friendly to
Americans and appear to be keenly
interested in information con–
cerning the United States. They im–
pressed us as a people who want to
be understood and liked!
People With a Heart
A memorable experience oc–
curred just as we were leaving
Moscow for London.
We checked out of our hotel in
sufficient time to catch our sched–
uled Russian plane for London.
Since neither my wife nor
1
speak
Russian, we asked the English–
speaking concierge at our hotel to
please tell our Russian-speaking
taxi driver to take us to the inter–
national airport. We had anything
but red-carpet treatment en route
from our hotel to the airport.
From the beginning, it appeared
to us that we were unfortunate in
getting a not-too-alert taxi driver.
(Every country has its share of ob–
tuse taxi drivers!) Our driver took
the wrong tum and drove us miles
out of tbe way, thereby causing us to
arrive at the airport severa! minutes
late. And to add to our con–
sternation, we were taken to the
wrong airport - tbe inter-Russian
air terminal - instead of to the in–
ternational terminal as we had re–
quested.
The drive from the inter-Russian
air terminal to the international ter–
minal was about another 15
rojnutes. This meant that we were
nearly a half hour late when we ar–
rived. We were, as I recall, supposed
to have arrived at the airport one
hour before our plane took off.
When we began checking in at
the airport, we were informed by an
English-speaking woman employee
that it was too late for us to get on
our previously scheduled flight. (lt
was still about 25 to 30 minutes un–
til the plane was scheduled to take
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