The constant diplomat : Robert Ford in Moscow / Charles A. Ruud.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ruud, Charles A., 1933-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ford, R. A. D., 1915-1998.

Ford, R. A. D.

Ambassadors--Canada--Biography.

Ambassadors.

Canada--Foreign relations--Soviet Union.

Canada.

Soviet Union--Foreign relations--Canada.

Soviet Union.

Soviet Union--History--1953-1985.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (324 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Montreal ; Ithaca : McGill-Queen's University Press, c2009.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Robert A.D. Ford had a distinguished diplomatic career that included an unprecedented sixteen years as Canadian ambassador to the Soviet Union during some of the most turbulent and important years of the Cold War (1964-80). Relying heavily on first-person testimony, including several interviews with Ford himself, Charles Ruud takes the reader behind the official announcements, revealing Ford's thoughts and actions as he dealt with what was then seen as the great arch-enemy of Western democratic nations. During his tenure as ambassador Ford was in frequent contact with Moscow's rulers and aware of their struggles, hopes, plans, and fears. Although they appeared powerful, Ford insisted that they sat uneasily on their Kremlin thrones. He showed their shortcomings and the flaws of their system at moments of apparent triumph and warned against miscalculating their strength. Shaped by centuries of Russian tsarism and by Communist ideology, Soviet leaders distrusted the world outside their borders and often failed to understand it, making mistakes and then compounding them, always without acknowledgment. The Constant Diplomat uncovers the experiences that informed Ford's capacity to understand the Russians and provides a clear picture of the evolving Soviet domestic, political, social, and cultural scene from the late Stalin era through to the end of the Brezhnev regime.

Contents:

Map: Soviet Sites Visited by Robert Ford

Ambassador in Training

Thereza and Encounters with Russia

Politics under Khrushchev

Brezhnev, the Flawed Leader

Soviets under Threat

Trudeau's Opening

Trudeau in Moscow

Trudeau after the Peak

Soviet Meetings

Decline of the USSR

Soviet Embassy, Ottawa

Final Things

Retrospective Look

A. Soviet Province

B. Early Travels With Ford, 1952-1953

C. Travels with Ford, 1954-1972

D. Travels with the Ambassador, 1978-1979.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612866517

9780773584327

0773584323

9781282866515

1282866516

9780773576049

0773576045

OCLC:

759157069