RIP Anatoly Dobrynin, ambassador non-pareil

[bananas]

Dobrynin passed on last month, I just searched Google news and these are the only articles I see about it, I searched DU and didn't see anything either:

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/05/01/1916951/cw-gusewelle-diplomats-death-recalls.html

Diplomat’s death recalls dark days
By C.W. GUSEWELLE
The Kansas City Star
More News

Word of the death last month of the longtime Soviet diplomat Anatoly Dobrynin rolled back time nearly a half-century, to the fall of 1962, when we and the Russians edged to the very brink of nuclear Armageddon.

<snip>

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/anatoly-dobrynin-ambassador-nonpareil/615634/0

Anatoly Dobrynin, ambassador non-pareil
Inder Malhotra
Posted: Thu May 06 2010, 23:52 hrs

When Anatoly Dobrynin, unquestionably one of the most outstanding diplomats of the 20th century, died recently in Moscow at age 90, the Indian media took no notice of it. Nobody need blame the media for the simple reason that his arena of brisk activity was the United States where he was Soviet ambassador for a record period of over 24 years. He dealt with six presidents and nine secretaries of state. As the envoy of one superpower to the only other, his main task was to see to it that their tense relationship did not spin out of control. In this he succeeded eminently. According to Alistair Horne, a British war historian and biographer — among others, of Henry Kissinger with whom Dobrynin had a very friendly working relationship — if the Cold War did not turn into a hot one, much of the credit must go to Dobrynin. Kissinger’s take is that in relaxing tensions and avoiding “inadvertent deadlocks” Dobrynin’s contribution was “central”.

<snip>

http://www.hnn.us/articles/126151.html

5-03-10
Death of a Diplomat and a New START in Arms Control
By Richard A. Moss

Richard A. Moss is a co-editor at nixontapes.org and works as government consultant in Northern Virginia. He defended his doctoral dissertation, “Behind the Backchannel: Achieving Détente in U.S.-Soviet relations, 1969-1972,” at The George Washington University in May 2009. The views presented in this op-ed are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of his employer or the U.S. Government.

That Dobrynin is as sharp as a tack,” Henry Kissinger marveled to President Nixon in the Oval Office. “The way that he edited that letter of yours…He actually strengthened it.”

Kissinger’s discussion with the president – recorded on February 23, 1971, one week after the installation of Nixon’s secret White House taping system – was focused on a largely deceptive document: a letter from Nixon to Alexei Kosygin designed to hide a recent breakthrough in secret U.S.-Soviet arms control negotiations then underway (In his memoirs, Nixon even misrecalled that the letter was to Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev).

<snip>

http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2010/04/25/news0502.htm

Internet Edition. April 25, 2010, Updated: Bangladesh Time 12:00 AM

Anatoly Dobrynin and geometry of diplomacy

Dr. M. S. Haq

Syed Muazzem Ali - a former ambassador and Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh, a TV talk show discussant, and a newspaper columnist - has recently written an article titled: Anatoly Dobrynin - Passing away of a legendary diplomat of the twentieth century. Mr. Ali reportedly met Ambassador Dobrynin and his wife Irina when the former was posted at Bangladesh embassy in Washington, USA.

<snip>

A number of good things - about Anatoly Dobrynin and his work - have been written in the article. I believe the time is ripe now for world people to explore further, among other things, known unknowns of Mr. Dobrynin's profile and work during the era. In that respect, a few of the questions that came to my mind have been presented below - not in the order of priority and importance - they are, however, relative to time, space and other variables.

<snip>

[Possumpoint]

1. Thank You For Posting It!

There are some of us old enough to remember him.

[bananas]

2. Wikipedia links to an obit at The Daily Telegraph

I just searched the NY Times website and it found nothing:

http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch?query=Dobrynin&srchst=cse

Your search - Dobrynin - did not match any documents under Past 30 Days.

but wikipedia links to an obit at The Daily Telegraph:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoly_Dobrynin

Anatoly Fyodorovich Dobrynin (Russian: Анатолий Фёдорович Добрынин, November 16, 1919 – April 6, 2010) was a Russian statesman and a former Soviet diplomat and politician. He was Soviet Ambassador to the United States, serving from 1962 to 1986 and most notably during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He was appointed by Nikita Khrushchev.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/politics-obituaries/7568616/Anatoly-Dobrynin.html

Anatoly Dobrynin, who died on April 6 aged 90, served as Soviet ambassador to the United States during the terms of six American presidents, from John F Kennedy to Ronald Reagan.

Published: 6:02PM BST 08 Apr 2010

For a quarter of a century, from 1962 to 1986, a period spanning almost two-thirds of the Cold War, "Tolya" Dobrynin was the urbane "back channel" between the Kremlin and the White House that helped to defuse a series of crises, most notably the Cuban missile crisis of 1962.

<snip>

[bananas]

3. The Washington Post covered it

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/08/AR2010040805444.html

Anatoly Dobrynin, 90
Anatoly Dobrynin, former Soviet ambassador to U.S., dies

"Subtle and disciplined, warm in his demeanor while wary in his conduct," former U.S. envoy Henry Kissinger once wrote of the Soviet ambassador, "Dobrynin moved through the upper echelons of Washington with consummate skill." (1995 Photo By Tyler Mallory For The Washington Post)

By Matt Schudel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 9, 2010

Anatoly Dobrynin, who negotiated arms treaties, helped settle the Cuban Missile Crisis and was the dean of Washington's international diplomatic corps during his 24 years as Soviet ambassador to the United States, died April 6 in Russia at the age of 90. The Russian government did not release the place or cause of death.

Mr. Dobrynin, the chief representative of the Soviet Union in the United States throughout the Cold War, helped pull the two superpowers back from the brink of war in the 1962 missile crisis, and his mastery of secretive "back-channel" diplomacy led to a new era of detente and the end of the nuclear arms race in the 1970s.

<snip>

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postmortem/2010/04/secrets-of-a-soviet-ambassador.html

Secrets of a Soviet Ambassador
Matt Schudel

Anatoly Dobrynin, the former Soviet ambassador to the United States, died this week at the age of 90. He was the ambassador from 1962 to 1986 and was a huge presence in Washington during those 24 years. He was affable and spoke English well enough to negotiate directly with presidents and secretaries of state. His had sources and acquaintances at the highest levels of Washington's political and journalistic class and was deeply plugged into every administration from John F. Kennedy's to Ronald Reagan's.

<snip>

During a strange summit meeting between Richard Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in 1973, Brezhnev got drunk and began spilling Kremlin secrets that Dobrynin claimed not to translate in full to Nixon. Even more bizarre, however, was a late-night encounter with first lady Pat Nixon, never revealed until Dobrynin's memoir. It seems the first lady was sleepwalking through the halls of Nixon's San Clemente home, and the baffled Soviet contingent didn't know what to do. Finally, a KGB agent delicately picked up Mrs. Nixon and carried her back to her bedroom.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postmortem/2010/04/former-soviet-ambassador-dobry.html

Former Soviet ambassador Dobrynin dies
Anatoly Fyodorovich Dobrynin (Анатолий Фёдоров...

Image via Wikipedia
Anatoly Dobrynin, Soviet ambassador to the United States during the terms of six American presidents, has reportedly died. Here's the information from a Russian site.

The United Nations, where he served as Under-Secretary-General for Political and Security Council Affairs in the 1950s when the late Dag Hammarskjöld was Secretary-General, noted Mr. Dobrynin's significant contribution to promoting international cooperation.

"As ambassador to Washington he played a major role in saving the world from a nuclear disaster during the crisis of October 1962," the statement said.

By Patricia Sullivan | April 8, 2010; 3:26 PM ET

[independentpiney]

4. I can't believe there was so little mention in the press

at the time of his passing that it wasn't picked up on DU. Dobrynin was a major figure in cold war diplomacy, probably more important than any individual US Secretary of State imo.

[zipplewrath]

5. Thanks, I missed that. He wrote a good book

I'm under no illusions that part of it was a tad self serving. But as books in this category go, it was very well written. He was something that is actually fairly rare in the world. He was a true "professional diplomat" at a level that is often more populated with professional politicians. I can't think of the last SoS that was as such. I do wonder who our "best" ambassador is these days.

[H2O Man]

6. I agree.

Very good book; absolutely worth reading.