Roses from Russia

Walking quietly into Washington's Union Station one afternoon last week to entrain for a Princeton trustees' meeting, former CIA Chief Allen Dulles found himself in unexpected company. On the lookout for his own train, he ambled into a crowd gathered on a platform, quickly realized his mistake. Asked Dulles, peering around in puzzlement: "What is this?" Newsmen quickly told him what it was: a reception committee for Anatoly Fedorovich Dobrynin, 42, who arrived in the U.S. last week as the Soviet Union's new Ambassador to the U.S.

Wearing a fashionable black Chesterfield overcoat, the tall, polished Dobrynin stepped off the midday express from New York with his attractive brunette wife Irina Nikolaevna at his side. Russian embassy staffers showered him with roses, thrust out carnations. Dobrynin lost no time in dispensing his own roses. Smiling graciously and speaking in slightly accented English, he quoted Thomas Jefferson on the "remarkable similarity" between Americans and Russians, extended "the friendly greetings of my people." Then he climbed into a black Zil limousine and sped off to the Soviet embassy.

Ever since former Ambassador Mikhail ("Smiling Mike") Menshikov left Washington in early January, the taciturn Soviet diplomatic delegation has been even quieter than usual under the interim command of Minister Counselor Mikhail Smirnovsky. While it waited for Dobrynin's arrival, official Washington had had time to ponder his credentials. A skilled diplomat and a top Soviet expert on the U.S., Dobrynin served at the Soviet embassy in Washington from 1952 to 1955. Later, at the U.N., he was Dag Hammarskjold's Under Secretary for Political and Security Council Affairs. He attended the Geneva summit conference in 1955 and the Kennedy-Khrushchev meeting at Vienna in 1961.

This week or next Dobrynin was to present his credentials to President Kennedy at the White House. Until he got to work, Washington could not be sure whether he was an improvement or not--but there were some encouraging signs. Dobrynin is young, intelligent, and far more relaxed with Americans than Menshikov, whose major trademark was a stiff, frozen grin. For a Soviet diplomatic couple, the Dobrynins have unusual social poise, even dress like Americans. On the art-and athletics-conscious New Frontier, they are likely to contribute more than Menshikov to Washington's social whirl. Both are accomplished skiers (he also plays tennis), and Mrs. Dobrynin plays the piano well, has a broad knowledge of U.S. art and literature. But Washington would be surprised indeed if Dobrynin displayed the one quality that Soviet diplomats, however polished, rarely bring along with them: flexibility.

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