Back to Sofia

In one of Big Brotherland's countless fratricidal quarrels, satellite Bulgaria in 1949 charged Deputy Premier Traicho Rostov with plotting against the Communist regime and, just to give the case its proper anticapitalist flavor, accused U.S. Minister Donald R. Heath of conspiring with Kostov. The U.S. promptly broke off diplomatic relations with Bulgaria. Since then, Switzerland has been handling U.S. interests in Bulgaria, and Poland has been looking after Bulgarian affairs in the U.S. In 1956 the Bulgarians re-examined the Kostov case, exonerated Kostov himself--years after he had been executed. The U.S. ever since has been bombarded by the Bulgars with pleas for renewing relations, but the U.S. State Department insisted that Bulgaria drop all charges against Heath (now Ambassador to Saudi Arabia). Bulgaria finally and formally did just that--whereupon the U.S. last week let the Bulgars reopen their mission in Washington, made plans to return to the U.S. legation in Sofia.

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