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Briefing note: US Deputy Secretary Of State meeting with Andrei Gromyko (1985)

history.state.gov

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Re: Briefing note: US Deputy Secretary Of State meeting with Andrei Gromyko (1985)

#6

Post by retSava »

terramex wrote: post #5
BruceEel wrote: post #3

...not The Onion.

...but it sure reads like one. > If Soviets dismantle all SS–20s, we are willing to airbrush out Gorbachev’s birthmark in US photographs

I wonder if that's some kind of cheeky remark internal between the SoS and the assistant, or if there was actually a real thought to do this. Ofc, cheap price, but seriously? Did they believe Gorbachev (spelling) was that vain? Was he?

edit: also, "make the world safe for conventional warfare". Hmpf.

Re: Briefing note: US Deputy Secretary Of State meeting with Andrei Gromyko (1985)

#7

Post by retSava »

BruceEel wrote: post #3

...not The Onion.

Ha.

"Point to Make

—We have new proposal: why don’t you send Lenin’s body to US on tour. Just like King Tut exhibit.

—We are prepared to respond by sending Jane Fonda workout group on tour of Soviet cities."

Re: Briefing note: US Deputy Secretary Of State meeting with Andrei Gromyko (1985)

#8

Post by ncmncm »

howlgarnish wrote: post #2

We need a contest to come up with the most plausible album for "Never Mind the Manganese Ore Export Quotas, Here’re the Enjoyable Popular Music Boys."

For those too young to remember or were asleep in Music History, this is a play on "Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols".

The Sex Pistols was a British punk band, a project of Malcolm McLaren fronted by Sid Vicious (John Ritchie) and Johnny Rotten (Johnny Lydon), who enjoyed needling then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who badly deserved it.

Re: Briefing note: US Deputy Secretary Of State meeting with Andrei Gromyko (1985)

#9

Post by ncmncm »

I have to guess that the extreme tongue-in-cheek quality of the whole presentation played on the expectation that the Soviets would have access to this, themselves, before the meeting, and would find it very difficult to read between the lines and know what it was really saying.

More likely it was meant entirely for the Soviets' amusement/confusion, that they would have been obliged to pretend they had not seen, and some other doc still secret was actually read by (or to) the US crew.

Or, it is really just an inside joke that never had any larger meaning, and got assigned a document number more or less by mistake..

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