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Anatoly Fyodorovich Dobrynin (, 16 November 1919 – 6 April 2010) was a Soviet Union politician, diplomat, and politician. He was the Soviet ambassador to the United States for more than two decades, from 1962 to 1986.
He attracted notoriety among the American public during and after the Cuban Missile Crisis at the beginning of his ambassadorship, when he denied the presence of Soviet missiles in Cuba. However, he did not know until days later that Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev had already sent the missiles and that the Americans already had photographs of them. Between 1968 and 1974, he was known as the Soviet end of the Henry Kissinger–Dobrynin direct communication and negotiation link between the Nixon administration and the Soviet Politburo.
Dobrynin had the unique experience of serving as Soviet ambassador to the United States during the terms of six presidents (Kennedy, Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan). The Cold War rivalry made his position one of the key elements in Soviet–American relations, and between the Soviet ambassador to the United States (in Washington) and the United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union (in Moscow), most diplomatic business channeled through the former. Dobrynin's regular contacts with the US State Department resulted in him being granted his own parking spot in the State Department garage. When President Reagan revoked that privilege in 1981, he remarked about Dobrynin, "I couldn't help liking him as a human being."
Dobrynin developed an especially close relationship with Henry Kissinger with whom he often met and dined with up to four times a week. They had a direct line to each other's office; they exchanged gifts, shared inside jokes, and even met each other's parents.
In 1971, he was elected to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). After his long term as ambassador to the United States, he returned to Moscow in 1986 and joined the party's Secretariat and led the international department of the CPSU Central Committee for two years. At the end of 1988, he retired from the Central Committee and served as an advisor to the Soviet presidency.
He attended the December 1989 Malta Summit, which formally marked the end of the Cold War. He was given the honorary rank of Russian ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary in 1992.
Dobrynin died in Moscow on 6 April 2010. In a telegram to Dobrynin's family, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev paid tribute to Dobrynin, stating:
Works and death
His book, In Confidence: Moscow's Ambassador to Six Cold War Presidents, was published in 1995. (It was last reprinted in 2001 as .)
Honours and awards
See also
External links
Categories: 1919 Births, 2010 Deaths, People From Mozhaysky District, Moscow Oblast, People From Mozhaysky Uyezd, Ambassadors Of The Soviet Union To The United States, Deans Of The Diplomatic Corps To The United States, Cold War Diplomats, Moscow Aviation Institute Alumni, Heroes Of Socialist Labour, Recipients Of The Order Of Lenin, Recipients Of The Order Of Honour, Honored Employee Of The Diplomatic Service
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