A look at history should give President Donald Trump pause if he and his administration think they understand the workings of Russian minds. The 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan provides a lesson in how the Soviet Union and the U.S. miscommunicated and misunderstood each other — with long-lasting, dire results.
On Sept. 21, 1995, as Norwegian ambassador I hosted a private lunch for Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin and Admiral Stansfield Turner. Vodka was served.
Dobrynin had been the Soviet Union’s ambassador to the United States from 1962 to 1986, from JFK through Ronald Reagan. His book “In Confidence: Moscow’s Ambassador to Six Cold War Presidents” is a must-read. Stansfield Turner was the head of the CIA for Jimmy Carter...
from The Cap Times of Madison
Ambassador Loftus served as U.S. Ambassador to Norway from 1993 to 1998. He is an international consultant specializing in Norway. He has also consulted foundations that assist Parliaments in developing democracies, and complete projects with the new Hungarian Parliament, the Parliament of Thailand, the National and Provincial Parliaments of Pakistan, the Parliament of Latvia, the Parliament of Turkey and the Parliament of Macedonia.