Читать книгу Assignment Russia - Marvin Kalb - Страница 6

Erik Larson, the best-selling author of a recent Churchill biography, defines his book as “a work of nonfiction.” He then defines nonfiction as “anything between quotation marks [that] comes from some form of historical document, be it a diary, letter, memoir, or other artifact,” as well as “any reference to a gesture, gaze or smile, or any other facial reaction, [that] comes from an account by one who witnessed it.”

This book is also a work of nonfiction, but I cannot swear to the absolute accuracy of every quote, gesture, or smile. I wish I could. This book is a memoir, and memoirs often live in the hazy mist of memory. I have a good memory, but not a perfect one, and therefore my recollection of an event or a conversation may not conform to someone else’s. But I’ve done the best I could. Memoirs, by definition, are not works of history—no footnotes, no bibliography.

Please consider Assignment Russia as a long letter home after an unforgettable personal adventure. It’s the story of a few very important years in my life as a young reporter trained in the crucible of the Cold War. In the 1950s, I pursued one professional goal with an unflinching determination—to become CBS’s Moscow correspondent. It took three years for me to get to Moscow, but it was worth the effort. In May 1960, I finally got there, arriving in the Soviet capital shortly after the collapse of the Paris summit and starting a Moscow assignment that lasted until January 1963 and included such stories as the opening up to Mongolia, the building of the Berlin Wall, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Those were stories and years packed with professional excitement and personal growth, the rich fodder for my next memoir.

But for this memoir, buckle down for the story of my midnight arrival to CBS in early July 1957, the last recruit hired by the legendary broadcaster, Edward R. Murrow, and then my deeply gratifying ascent through the ranks of a growing and talented news department to become the network’s Moscow correspondent at a dangerous moment in the Cold War. It was a major, important assignment for me and CBS, and I hoped that I would be able to perform in the Murrow tradition of serious, fearless, and enlightening journalism, so essential for the functioning of American democracy.

October 15, 2020

Chevy Chase, Maryland