“‘We understand our two countries have different approaches to some problems, and that is why I think we should explain our positions—to establish man-to-man contact”—Andrei Filippov, official of the Committee of Youth Organizations of the USSR, quoted in the Savannah (Ga.) Morning News, explaining the purpose of the meeting between young American and Soviet political leaders.
My opportunity to establish “man-to-man” contact with the Soviets and explain “our positions” came when I was invited to attend a State Department sponsored conference of young American and Soviet political leaders at Saint Simons, Georgia. I of course accepted, and it was with great enthusiasm that I awaited my first contact with a Russian as our doubledecker, English touring bus pulled into the King and Prince Beach Hotel late one Sunday night. I soon met Andrei Girenko, First Secretary of the Ukraine Komsomol Committee, member of the Komsomol Central Bureau, Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR and, unknown to me at the time, head of the Soviet delegation to the conference.
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