Saturday Morning Live

Not many Americans were both awake and tuned in to CNN, the all-news cable-TV network, early Saturday morning.

But those who were saw something that had never appeared on U.S. screens before: a Soviet leader conducting a press conference in Moscow, live. It was not exactly American-style--the questions were mostly written, not shouted by reporters--but it was close enough to arouse feelings of dej`a vu. The Kremlin apparently wanted to make the maximum publicity splash for its official reply to President Reagan's Euromissile proposals. So the Soviet foreign ministry began notifying reporters on Wednesday, hours after Reagan had stopped speaking, that Andrei Gromyko, the U.S.S.R.'s Foreign Minister, would meet with them at 11 a.m. Saturday, Moscow time. The timing presumably was calculated to win big headlines in U.S. and European Sunday newspapers.

Scenting a scoop, CNN headquarters in Atlanta had its Moscow bureau chief, Stuart Loory, ask the foreign ministry if the conference would be televised live, an extremely rare event in the Soviet capital. When the reply was yes, CNN bought time on a satellite to hook into the telecast. The Soviets supplied two feeds: one for the picture and sound in Russian, the other for a rendition in English by a Soviet translator. Cost to CNN: $15,000.

About 300 Soviet and foreign reporters, including TIME Correspondent John Moody, were waiting when Gromyko strode into the ministry's press center with a jaunty step that belied his 73 years. He delivered a 65-minute speech, then answered a dozen questions. Speaking without notes or a prompting device, Gromyko came across as thoughtful, worldly and more humorous than his nickname, "Grim Grom," would suggest. Insisting that British and French missiles must be included in any agreement limiting warheads in Europe, he asked what would happen if they were launched against the U.S.S.R.: "Will a French missile have a stamp on it, 'I am French. I was not to be taken into account? ' " When Loory inquired what effect his promotion last month to the additional post of First Deputy Premier would have on his duties, Gromyko deadpanned: "I think I can say the Foreign Minister will not have less work to do." It was an act that the Great Communicator himself might applaud. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.