Pen Pals

"San Francisco is one of the most beautiful towns in the world, with beautiful architecture, very good parks, an abundance of sculptural monuments . . .

The warm sun pours its light into the windows of homes in Phoenix . . . [New York] skyscrapers give the impression of houses chiseled from rock that was standing there before. The outside appearance of apartment houses is somewhat monotonous, but one should pay tribute to their internal planning and design."

These glowing words came not from U.S. travel bureaus but from top Russian newsmen back behind the Iron Curtain after a 33-day junket through the U.S. (TIME, Oct. 31). The seven junketeers managed to needle the U.S. in their reports. They noted and disapproved a "greed for profit." ("A unique means of making a profit is shown by Jack Graham, who blew up his mother and a plane for the insurance.") They rapped U.S. TV for showing too many commercials ("Only a stone sphinx could stick to one of these performances to the very end"). But they gave readers of Pravda, Izvestia and other leading Soviet journals the friendliest, most appreciative view of the U.S. since the wartime alliance. Russians, long accustomed to trite fictions about hungry armies of U.S. unemployed, read such items as:

P:In Izvestia Viktor Poltoratsky revealed for the first time to most Russians that there are 58 million automobiles and trucks in the U.S. (only 3,000,000 short of the latest count), and that the Chevrolet plant in Los Angeles turns out a new car every 90 seconds. Wrote Poltoratsky: "It is possible to cross America from the Atlantic to the Pacific by automobile, and everywhere . . . the motorist finds all he needs--service stations, speedy mechanical assistance, and inexpensive and comfortable lodgings."

P:In New Times Valentin Berezhkov, describing a visit to a Cleveland home, brightened over the "gleaming pots and pans in the spotless little kitchen," and owned up to feeling a "warm regard for this American family."

P:In the magazine International Life Boris Izakov: "We loved with all our hearts the hardworking, energetic, kindhearted, hospitable, cheerful, jovial people."

P: In Pravda Boris Polevoy rhapsodized: "What we saw was unusually attractive and interesting. Even knowing well the magnitude of technical thought of American engineers, it is difficult to imagine the 102-story Empire State Building without seeing it. One can dispute whether such high buildings are needed, but one cannot help admiring the boldness of the planners and the golden hand of the workers. [There is] the bridge of many kilometers that hangs like iron lace over the bay connecting San Francisco and Oakland; the Ford factory near Cleveland, where you hardly see any workers in shops that produce eight-cylinder motors--who, if not we Soviet people, who . . . march in seven-league boots on the road of technical progress, who, if not we, can really appreciate (this) grandeur?"

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