Стр. 8 - V

Электронное приложение к журналу «Международная жизнь»
Author : John Beyrle
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States to the Russian Federation (2008-
2011)
I AM OFTEN ASKED to name the most memorable moment of
my three decades as a U.S. diplomat managing America's relations
with the Soviet Union and Russia, 1983-2013. My memories are
many and vivid. I recall the bitter cold of Red Square in the winters
of 1984 and 1985 when I accompanied Vice President George W.
Bush to the state funerals of Soviet leaders Andropov and Cher-
nenko. And I will never forget the unexpected warmth of the sum-
mit meetings between Reagan and Gorbachev that I helped prepare
in 1988. I was deeply proud when Presidents Medvedev and Obama
signed the START Treaty reducing strategic nuclear weapons, an
achievement that brought immense satisfaction to all of my Amer-
ican and Russian colleagues who helped negotiate the agreement.
From a purely emotional point of view, though, nothing surpasses the moment on May 9, 2010 when,
while serving as U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation, I rose from my seat on the grandstand in
the shadow of the Kremlin and saluted the uniformed American soldiers marching through Red Square
during the celebration of the 65th anniversary of the allied victory in World War II.
Today, a short five years later, the American and Russian governments are embroiled in serious dis-
agreements that are undermining the mutual trust that should be the basis of constructive bilateral re-
lations.
The victory that we celebrated then and again now was a total victory of the Allied Powers. Cooperation
between the allies in World War II was crucial to the complete defeat of Nazi Germany. But during my
trips throughout Russia as ambassador, and in my travels in the United States, I found myself dismayed
at how poorly people in both countries, especially the younger generation, understood the realities of
our wartime alliance.
When I think about the service of my father, I understand that it is impossible to overestimate the
frontline brotherhood that emerged between the millions of soldiers and sailors that made up our
strategic alliance, fighting a common enemy on the ground, in the sky and the sea. If not for the joint
efforts of all the peoples of the anti-Hitler coalition, the final victory over the enemy would have re-
mained just a dream.
hank the Soviet soldiers, the men and women who took my father into their ranks when he was de-
fenseless, fed him when he was starving, treated his wounds, helped him get to the U.S. Embassy in
Moscow and return home to his family alive and well. It was of these men and women that I thought
in 2010, as I saluted the American soldiers marching across Red Square. And perhaps it is for this reason
- personal and emotional, yes, but no less genuine - that I continue to believe in the possibility of - and
to work for - a constructive and productive relationship between our two governments.
American Soldiers on Red Square