Engineer Memoirs
discovered by our inspectors. I climbed into the attic with Secretary Schultz and
saw hundreds of devices which had been blatantly placed in the building. To meet
on classified matters we had to squeeze into aluminum house trailers we had
shipped to Moscow. These trailers, placed in the basement of the new embassy,
were shielded with antibugging material. To get classified messages to Washington
we had to write them out in long hand, then have them taken by courier to Helsinki
where they were typed and dispatched over secure circuits. Even our typewriters
in Moscow were bugged.
In October we traveled to Moscow for one of our many sessions to try to advance
START. As was our habit, we flew to Helsinki where we caught up on our jet lag
and did our final internal coordination. This time a fog had settled over the area.
To save a day we decided to take an overnight train to Moscow. Soviet officials
said, "Sorry, no cars are available. " Undaunted, we asked-and received-cars
from the Finnish government. Not only were the cars nicer than Soviet cars, but
we were provided with a diner as well. Even so, the Soviets insisted on a car for
their "escorts " We surmised they wanted their KGB [Soviet Committee of State
Security] agents along.
As I often did to pass the time
away, I took out my harmonica and
played American and Russian
tunes. Our people joined in on the
singing and had a good time.
When we arrived in Moscow the
next day, news stories accused:
"Rowny, the right wing hawk, of
playing `prerevolutionary tunes. ""
I did not realize that my repertoire
included "prerevolutionary
or that the older Russian tunes were
frowned upon.
Later that day I ran into Gernadi
Gerosimov, an acquaintance of
some years who had been editor of
Pravda. "Gorbachev has decided
that it is more important to
influence the American public than
Ambassador Edward L. Rowny playing his
inform his own people." He said.
famous harmonica, 30 January 1985.
"I'm now writing for Americans,
and not for Soviets." Signs of
changing times.
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