[Editor’s notes: The letter referenced as the “(attached)” appear several places in Temple files, including at G-1-g-10 (p. 1) and G-1-g-8c (p. 2) in this section, in Section G-2, and a draft version in Section GG-1.]
G-1-g-8a
Sharon Amos
USSR, 23/4/78 [April 23, 1978] (Debbie [Touchette], Mike [Prokes], Sharon)
– [Fedor] Timofeyev, and he called Alex [Aleksandro Voropaev] in to translate his article but his english wasn’t good enough so Timofeyev translated it
– I gave Alex the message about the fact we were sorry he didn’t see our brick making (fire bricks for construction)
– he said he saw the cooking with wooden ovens and stoves (and he did see the soap because I was there when we showed it to him and his wife and we pointed out the smokehouse to him
– we mentioned the shingle mill
– he said that Home Affairs had asked to see a copy of the Russian Article but they sent it to them in Russian as they are not required to translate it (in fact they are not required to show them Tass reports but they did it as a courtesy/ he said [Minister of Home Affairs Vibert] Mingo had asked to see it
– he Alex called Jonestown a paradise/ he said that if every Guyanese work is hard and was as clean, it would be very good
– I asked if he had talked about his trip meaning the boat but he said he did tell of a funny situation in the bathroom (humorous) with a woman sitting down on the wrong toilet/ Alex had been explained that the woman was old and had gotten mixed up, because Alex was in the right toilet
– he didn’t seem to mention about the boat much as Timofeyev didn’t respond much to this (or else he didn’t want to go into Alex not being a good sailor???
– he said they had called all the Embassy staff together and Alex had told them all about the visit
– he said they plan to do this also to show our slides to all in the Embassy
– I asked when he plans to come and he said he will come, as soon as he can
– re the woman I talked to at the Soviet Friendship meeting, Alex said her name was Ruth Tisira/ Timofeyev said she was Janet Jagan’s niece [Janet Jagan is wife of Guyana opposition leader Cheddi Jagan] / she works in the Progressive Woman’s Organization and I can call there and talk to he [her]/ she works with culture organizations in the Soviet Friendship society
– regarding the text of the paper we were to show him (attached), he said when he read paragraph 5 that the USSR doesn’t see the word pragmatic as a positive word/ it means selfish like Kissinger is considered pragmatic/ he said in his letter to Russians to use the word “realist” (tho it is interesting to me that Russians are far more willing to be pragmatic in their sinse of self-centered compromise than we would ever consider/ such as his saying not to treat Guyanese people, our doctor, rather than have controversy, and that JJ should be arrested rather than our stand against such a violation of socialism. Also, I read in a book Time of Illusion about the Nixon years that while US was mining the harbors in Vietnam to stop USSR and Chinese boats from giving Vietnam aid/ Nixon made a deal for wheat with the Soviets to buy them off and they did not object to the mining, and went on with negotiations with the US in the trip Nixon made at the same time in Russia (so they were bought off and preferred for this reason Nixon as a candidate)
– he has no answer yet about taking our children or our people
– he gave no answers on this part at all (that is against their strategy/ they will make no comment until they get official go aheads)
– he said regarding [Guyana Prime Minister Forbes] Burnham and [Guyana opposition leader Cheddi] Jagan coming to some sort of agreement, as far as he knows there has been no meeting of them since 9/76 when there was a big program given by the USSR with the PM and Jagan there/he said that since then there have been no meetings but said he doesn’t know everything
– he said he has his differences with Jagan, they differ even about the country going right/ he said Jagan feels that there are mostly right wingers in Cabinet
(over)
G-1-g-8b
and he Timofeyev feels the situation is not so extreme
– he said we are better, in his opinion, to see the PPP on an official basis than to sneak to see them, but best still would be to see them at reception where others would be there too so it wouldn’t be just PPP there
– he said Jagan doesn’t always understand and some others like him that USSR has to be friendly with the PM as well as to PPP because it could cause a problem if they don’t. He said that that is the reason at the Soviet friendship program which is dominated by PPP, Alex went as a Tass reporter and not Conference PPP called recently on a Sunday which was all Opposition people, only Alex went as a Tass reporter, because he is allowed to have that right to cover any story (may be why he was the first to come visit us, to test the reaction)
– he said they have been criticized for having Jagan visit Embassy but they say he is the “official head of the Opposition” which is an official party so they don’t stop anyone from coming to their embassy or they invite into their parties or whatever they call their social events also
G-1-g-8c is a duplicate of G-2-g-2c