Welcome, Andrei

Rumania, a Warsaw Pact country which manages upon occasion to take a foreign-policy stand independently of the Soviet Union, recently condemned the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. A few days later, Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko arrived in Bucharest for talks. He opened the conversation, conducted around a circular table in a quiet conference room, by extracting from his pocket a large pistol.

“Now,” he said, “let us see if we can settle our differences amicably.”