The Road to Afghanistan - George Washington University

special typewriter. He also had to rely on prompts to respond to Carter’s questions. Hisassistants would hear the question and would place the appropriate response in front ofBrezhnev, and the general secretary would mumble the text with no understanding of whathe was saying. Several embarrassing situations occurred. When Carter asked Brezhnev aquestion that required only a short answer, the interpreter quickly crossed out theunnecessary text on the response note before passing it to Brezhnev. Brezhnev read theresponse to the point where the text was crossed out and asked, “Should I not keepreading?” President Carter and his assistants exchanged meaningful glances.The summit meeting included a visit to the famous Vienna Opera. Everybody knewthat Leonid Ilyich was indifferent to any kind of high culture, classical music in particular,and tried to avoid such visits. Carter, however, convinced him to sit through the first act ofMozart’s “The Abduction” from the Seraglio so that their joint visit to the opera would bereported in the media. Carter was driven by PR considerations. It would have been better,however, if the general secretary had declined the invitation, as he fell asleep numeroustimes and snored loudly during the performance. Members of his entourage had tophysically elbow and push Brezhnev to wake him during such lapses in consciousness.However, such tiny “details” did not seem to be of particular concern to othermembers of the Soviet delegation. After all, there was no need for any additional seriousdiscussions with the Americans, as the text of the treaty had been agreed upon in advance.All that was left to do was sign the treaty, toast to its success with a glass of champagne,and return home. A slight hitch occurred, however, at a meeting in the Soviet embassy.President Carter, who normally did not deviate from standard topics, and who obviouslywas sensitive to the Soviet leader’s incapacity for serious conversation, unexpectedly438