VLADIMIR POSNER INTERVIEWED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000605170003-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 20
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 1, 2012
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: June 2, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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RADIO TV REPORTS, INC.
4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND 20815 [phone]
PROGRAM The Larry King Show
STATION C N N- T V
DATE June 2, 1986 . 9:00 P.M. CITY Washington, D.C.
SUBJECT Vladimir Posner Interviewed
J LARRY KING: Our first guest tonight is Vladimir Posner.
He's become kind of a cult figure in America, easily the
best-known Soviet radio and television commentator, who lived for
how long in this country?
VLADIMIR POSNER: Eight years.
KING: Why'd you leave?
POSNER: Why did I leave'? My parents left. I was 14
going on 15. My father went back to the Soviet Union. I wanted
to go with him.
KING: Good thinking at 14..
POSNER: Yeah.
KING: Your father worked for MGM, didn't he?
POSNER: He worked for a subdivision of MGM called Lowes
International.
KING: Why did he leave?
POSNER: Well, he had very strong political views. He
was a Soviet citizen and he absolutely wanted his children to
grow up in the Soviet Union. He wanted to go there. So he left.
KING: What was it like? It's enough of a trauma at 14
to move from Florida to Chicago. What was it like to move to
another country at 14?
OFFICES IN: WASHINGTON D.C. ? NEW YORK ? LOS ANGELES ? CHICAGO ? DETROIT ? AND OTHER PRINCIPAL CITIES
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POSNER: Not only another country, another culture,
another language that I did not speak. As a matter of fact, I
wound up in the Soviet Union when I was 19 because we first
stayed in Germany. My father was working there.
It was a. very exciting, difficult experience because
everything was different. Everything was different. Everything
that I'd been used to was not the same. I had a great desire to
be there. I was very pro-Soviet in my political outlook, but I
had no experience at all in the country. So I had to learn the
language and adapt to a new culture.
KING: The adjustment was extraordinary.
POSNER: Yeah.
KING: What did it for you? That is, the hurdles that
you overcame, what did it?
POSNER: I think it's a combination of many things: the
desire that I had, the environment that I was in. I went to
Moscow U. There were wonderful people there. In the summer we
went out to the virgin lands. We went to the forests in Siberia.
The taiga, it's called. We trekked. We did songs and dance and
skits for local workers. I really became part of it, and that
did it.
KING: . By the way,- I neglected to say this at the
beginning. Since we're in Los Angeles, we have a different phone
number all this week...
You were a biology major.
POSNER: I majored in human physiology. Yes.
KING: What took you to journalism?
POSNER: Total coincidence, accident. I didn't want to
be a biologist, I figured by the time I'd finished. I want to be
a translator of poetry. I loved, and still love, English 17th
Century poetry. I began doing that. I worked with a very famous
-Soviet translator, Samuel Marschak, for about two years. And
then I discovered that I really didn't want to do that as a
profession.
And at that time, I got a call from a friend who said
that there was a new wire service organization being founded in
Moscow called Novosti Press Agency. They were looking for people
who knew languages, and would I like to try out for an interview?
I said yes.
I tried out. I was offered the job of senior- editor,
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and I took it.
KING: Pretty good opening shot.
POSNER: Very. Very.
KING: You do both newspaper and...
POSNER: Not anymore. I used to be totally press. And
about -- I guess it was 1967 or '68, I began to free-lance for
radio; totally moved into radio in 1970, and then radio and
television beginning in 1975-76.
KING: Everybody likes to jump all over you, so I'm
going to approach this from a different kind of standpoint.
First, is it better financially to be a broadcast
journalist than a print journalist in the Soviet Union?
POSNER; Not necessarily. It all depends on how active
you are. If you write a lot for a newspaper, you will live and
get just as much and live just as well as if you appear often on.
television. Basically, it's the same thing.
KING: A little different, then, from this country.
POSNER: Yes. But, of course, if you're on television
you're much better known to the population than if you wr,ite for
a newspaper.
KING: And does the population have, like we have our
kind of -- we have our Brinkleys and our Jennings and our Brokaws
and Rathers. Same thing there?
POSNER: Not quite. We don't have anchor people. But
people who appear often on television, who host shows, are very
well known in the country. So they do have a kind of astar
status.
KING: Are you well known?
POSNER: I've become pretty well known.
KING: Why do you -- why do we know you the best?
POSNER: Well, I think there are two reasons. I was one
of the first to appear on American television, in '79 on
Nightline. And because of my language and my ability to
communicate with Americans, I've been on more than most of my
fellow citizens. So I think that's the reason.
KING: One of the things that -- every journalist that I
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have ever known is a complainer. I mean -it's by nature. They
don't like things. In fact, they tend to be rebellious, no
matter where they are: this terrible item, don't like the travel
.accommodations, [unintelligible].
What don't you like...
POSNER: In general?
KING: ...about the Soviet Union? In other words, I
could tell you things I don't like about America.
KING: You know, I think the planes lie to you. People
at airports lie to you. You get there. a 2:30, the plane. ain't
there, they say it's going to leave on time.
What don't you like?
POSNER: I don't like the bureaucracy, which I think is
a disaster. I don't like the way the economy is functioning.
It's not good at all. There are a whole lot of things I don't
like.
I mean we say that we have a great system of education,
which in principle is true. But there's a whole lot of things
about it that are not so great.
POSNER: Well, the fact that the schools -- because we
have no tuition, for a long time teachers were among the least
well paid. So the profession was not attractive. People who
went into teaching were people who really didn't want to teach
but had nowhere else to go. You see what that means in the sense
of education. That is changing, but that was the case.
I feel that there's not enough emphasis nowadays on
literature and on humanitarian subjects, and too much emphasis on
mathematics, physics and chemistry, which does not develop your,
really, thinking power in the philosophical sense of the word.
There are a lot of things that I would criticize.
KING: The bureaucracy is very difficult?
POSNER: The bureaucracy -- I think it's terrible
.everywhere, and certainly ours is. Marx once upon a time said
that the one stratum of society that is never patriotic and
always hinders everything is the bureaucracy. He could have
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said, "Bureaucrats of the world unite," and he would have been
right.
KING: What do you like about your former country?
POSNER: The United States?
KING: Mmmm.
POSNER: Oh, that's a lot of different things, big and
little. I like the spirit of the people, an openness. I like a
certain amount of individualism that there is in Americans. I
like the pioneer spirit that's still around. I like the humor,
which is great. I like the warmth. I like -- it's a beautiful
country, what's more. Physically, it's a beautiful country.
And then there are little things, like baseball and
peanut butter, that I like.
KING: Yeah. Don't you miss that? Come on, Vladimir.
POSNER: Of course I do.
.KING: Come back, Vladimir.
POSNER: [Laughter] I'm here. I'm,here. And I hope to
come back again.
KING: Do you always like coming here?
POSNER: Well, you know, this is the first time in 38
years that.I've been back.
KING: You're kidding.
POSNER: No. The first time in 38 years.
KING: Okay. What's it like? What's changed the most?
POSNER: Oh. It's a moving thing to come back to your
childhood. And when I was in New York City, it was incredible.
After 15 minutes it was as if I'd never left.
And then, gradually, I saw the things that had changed.
Midtown is a different city. The affluence is much more
apparent, and so is the misery, and that's more apparent.
There are little things, like there are less dogs and
more bicycles. More obese people and more people running. The
avenues to be two-ways, now they're one-way.
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POSNER: A whole lots of different things.
KING: How about -- now you've traveled. Do you like
Los Angeles?
POSNER: You''re putting me on the spot. I have always
though -- oh boy.
KING: Of all the cities...
POSNER: I'm not going to be pop -- yes. I'm sorry.
KING: To big?
POSNER: I don't get a feel for a city. -It's like
something spread out. And I don't feel the character. I felt it
in Boston. I felt it in Chicago. I felt it in Seattle, let
alone New York. I can't figure out what Los Angeles is.
KING: Okay. Now, as a journalist -- we talked about
self-criticism, which always journalists do. Why -- it seems
logical -- why can't, in the Soviet, why can't you get up on a
street corner in the Soviet Union and say, "I don't like
Gorbachev. I think he should change the train schedule. And I'm
going to hang a sign up here for as long as it takes for
Gorbachev to see this"?
POSNER: Right.
KING: Why can't you do that?
POSNER: It's not a question of can or can't. I think
it's a completely different cultural tradition.
In America, you tend to fasten on one.man, on one thing.
And so you say Reagan, or whoever. In my country, you tend to
look at the whole government. And you criticize it. You can do
it, and people do. I mean they write tons of letters about the
way they don't like, say, how the transportation system is
functioning. But they don't hang it on one person. It's a
different way of doing things.
But what I think is very important and what I'm trying
to do is say: There's a difference. Let's understand our
differences. But let's accept them as legitimate. Let's not
say, "Be like us," because that's hopeless. We're not going to
be like each other. We are different culturally and
historically.
KING: Do you think we can be friends?
POSNER: Oh, absolutely. I have no problem with that.
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KING: What do you base that on?
POSNER: I base that on the fact that if you have become
friends with the Chinese, and you have a l.ot of differences with
them, it's much easier to become friends with us because we have
more in common. After all, we are of European origin.
KING:. Would you admit, then, that there's been bad
moves on both sides?
KING: Since the Cold War.
POSNER: Oh, yeah. Nobody's totally right. If I were
asked to balance it, I would say I think there's been less effort
on this side to be friends, on the governmental level, with the
Soviet Union. But that there have been bad moves on both sides,
absolutely.
KING: Do you feel free?
POSNER: Absolutely free. Absolutely free.
KING: Absolutely.
POSNER: But I think, again, we have to realize that
there's a difference even in the concept of what is freedom. In
your country freedom is more or less to do, to say, to act what
you want. In my country freedom is responsibility, first and
foremost.
KING: All right. As someone born here...
POSNER: No, no. I was born in Paris.
KING: Born in Paris. But you were here,-when, 7
through 14?
POSNER: That's right.
KING: That's a formative age.
Aren't there times you wish you could do what American
journalists do?
POSNER: Which is what?
KING: Go on television and knock the government?
POSNER: You know, I'm not sure that just.going -= it's
satisfying...
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KING: Don't you wish you could do it?
POSNER: I don't really want to do that. It's
self-satisfying, but I'm not sure that it does anything. I want
to do things that indeed lead to some kind of concrete activity.
And I'm not sure that just getting up and knocking, pleasurable
as it may be,.leads to anything. It's an ego trip...
KING: The power to knock.
POSNER: The power to knock. Well, you could get used
KING: [Laughter]
Our guest is Vladimir Posner....
*
KING: We're going to intersperse your-phone calls with
our questions for Victor Posner, the...
POSNER: Vladimir Posner.
KING: Vladimir. Why did I Victor? See, I'm bringing
you back here, getting you back.
What was you name here?
Brooklyn?
POSNER: Vlad. Bill, some people called me.
KING: Come on, Vlad. Vlad? You were Vlad? Where, in
POSNER: In Manhattan.
KING: Vlad?
POSNER: Yeah.
KING: Okay. Vladimir Posner, who still -- attention
Moscow -- still likes baseball. Better than soccer. Still likes
baseball.
We're ready to go to your phone calls, and we start with
New York City.
WOMAN: I'd like to know how he gained the title
journalist when he is an eventuality, a spokesman for the Soviet
government.
KING: Fair question.
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POSNER: I put it this way. I consider myself to be a
journalist. I write. I go on the air in my own country. .
position.
In this country, I'm here to explain the Soviet
KING: Well, then you're not, a journalist on this tour.
POSNER: Well, I am here because people want to know the
Soviet position. And I don't think they want to know my personal
views. They're more interested in hearing what the Soviet
position is, which is what I try to explain.
.But I'm not an official spokesman. I've not been sent
as that. I do not represent the government. I have not been
briefed. So I would say, still, I'm a journalist, a Soviet
journalist, explaining what Soviet policy is.
KING: Could an American journalist do this through the
Soviet Union?
POSNER: There have been Americans on the air in my
country, including journalists. One that I interviewed
personally, Serge Neiman (?) of the New York Times.
I would like to see more American journalists, and I
would also like to see them explaining the American view, the
American policy, and not their personal views, because that's not
all that important.
KING: Supposing CNN said we wanted to send me, or ABC
wanted to send Ted Koppel, or someone. How easily could we get
there?
POSNER: May I interrupt you? GOSTEL (?) -- that'Js my
organization -- did not say, "We want to send Vladimir Posner."
It was rather the other way around. Phil Donahue or ABC said,
"We'd like to invite Vladimir Posner."
KING: Would we be invited?
POSNER: I think there's a good chance that some people
will be invited. I will certainly try to make that happen.
KING: And then we could go on television and radio.
POSNER: And I would talk for the Soviet Union.
KING: And I could tell you about America, what I would
like about America.
POSNER: I would ask you and you would answer me, like
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doing right now.
KING: I see. With no briefings or anything. So, would
I then be a spokesperson or a journalist? At that point I'd be
both, I guess, as long as I'm allowed to criticize my own...
POSNER: You'd be both. You'd be both. Yes.
KING: All right. Our next caller is from West Haven,
Connecticut.
MAN: Two quick questions. If a Jew wants to move to
Israel, why not let him go? And why didn't the Soviet know when
their leaders, Andropov and Chernenko, were fatally ill?
KING: Okay. That seems simple enough. Why shouldn't
you let anybody go?
POSNER: That's simple enough. Up to now, 300,000,
approximately, Jewish citizens -- Soviet Jews have left the
country.
I don't know why it is always only the Jews that we
speak about. There are other people in the. Soviet Union.
KING: Why can't anybody, if he wants to...
POSNER: According to the constitution, according to our
laws, they can. In each case it's an individual decision, both
for emigration and for immigration. It is not a fast process. I
think more people will be going out of the country, gradually.
But I think it's been turned into a whole political issue, and
that makes it a bit more difficult.
KING: But why would a country want someone who doesn't
want to be there?
POSNER: The country doesn't want someone who [doesn't]
want to be in the country. But I think you have to understand --
let me try to make an analogy. If an American were to publicly
say he wants to go to the Soviet Union, he would probably be
allowed to go, but he'd run into a lot of flak because he would
be seen by his own countrymen as being' a traitor because he's
going over to the commies. In a certain way, people who want to
come here from the Soviet Union are seen that way by their
people, and they have a tough time.
I think, in human terms, you can understand that.
Getting over to the second question. We did know that
both Andropov and Chernenko were quite ill. However, we don't
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tend to play up those things on television. In general, we don't
go into the personal lives, the personal things of anyone,
including our leaders. It's just not part of our tradition.
KING: Even major illness?
POSNER: Well, the people knew that they were ill. This
was not a secret.
POSNER: But we didn't have daily bulletins about the
man's temperature. We don't do that.
KING: Our next call is from Concord, California.
MAN: ...I was wondering, you've been very critical of
the Western press over the Chernobyl. I guess it exploited
figures of thousands dead and many more thousands injured. And
don't you think that this was perpetuated, if not caused, by the
tight-mouthed government and the press in the Soviet Union over
past incidences, such as the Korean Air Lines flight and these
other incidences?
POSNER: I certainly don't. I think that those particu-
lar instances that I mentioned, the 15,000 dead and the mass
graves, were a typical example of what I would call irresponsible
journalism. And not all American media did that. Far from all
of it. I think we're looking at some specific cases.
I don't believe -- insofar as the KAL incident is
concerned, it remains to be seen who ultimately was tight-
mouthed. And I don't think the story has yet been fully told.
I just think that there are certain media in the United
States, or medium, that have done irresponsible things.
1 KING: But isn't that part of the nice thing about this
country? That, with that First Amendment, we can even have
irresponsibility?
POSNER: I don't like that at all. It's almost like...
KING: You would like a conformity so that you couldn't
be a New York Post and a New York Times. Everything would have
to be...
POSNER: No. I would like to see responsibility as
being the principle.
KING: We'd all like that. But we wouldn't arrest
someone for being irresponsible.
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POSNER: I'm not saying you should arrest him. But I
think when you're talking about a journalist, journalists affect
the way people think. They are, whether they like it or not,
playing with people's minds. And if a doctor can be drummed out
of his profession for malpractice, I think a journalist should
also be drummed out if he is distorting facts.
And that 15,000 in mass graves was a typical example of
that type of irresponsible journalism.
KING: Does the journalist in the Soviet Union, albeit
the cultural differences, does he want that scoop?
KING: The same as the American. Does he want that
inside story, even if it hurts a government department?
POSNER: He wants the inside story.
KING: Scandal in the Department of Agriculture.
POSNER: He. wants it. It must be accurate. He must
have the proof. If he comes out with a headline that is not
true, that does not correspond to the facts, he will probably
lose his job.
KING: If he has the proof, can Pravda break a story
that hurts the government?
POS'NER: Well now, what do you mean, hurts the
government?
KING: Okay. Pravda finds, through wonderful
investigative journalism, that there's a scandal in the Soviet
Department of Agriculture. And in this scandal, six or seven
people have been hoarding food or shipping food to friends,
etcetera, breaking a law. Dead proof.
POSNER:_ Right.
KING: Would they first have to go to the authorities,
or can it be in Pravda tomorrow first?
POSNER: Pravda is in itself an.authority, and they
would break that story. And they've done similar stories.
What you, have to understand is that in the Soviet Union
there is no private corporation. So when you do break a story
about something, it's either the government, in one form or,
another, that is the culprit; it could be the Communist Party;
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some organization, local or whatever; it could be the trade
union. It's always something official, one way or another.
KING: Lyndon Johnson once said that somewhere in
between the two systems will be the next society. The good part
about socialist concept, caring for others, we've already shown:
Medicare, unemployment insurance, pensions. Those are all
basically socialist. Thomas, the candidate for President in
1932, had those as planks.
POSNER: Right.
KING: Do you agree with that? Do you think that
someday, barring war, a hundred years from today, you're going to
take some American things and America is going to take some
Soviet things, and we're going to have sort of a balance?
POSNER: I think there is a very basic difference
between the two systems. And that basic difference is that in
one soci-ety you do have private ownership of-what we call the
means of production, meaning the banks and the factories and the
land. And the other you do not. And I think that basic differ-
ence.will always remain. And I think that's the main thing.
KING: You'll never have private ownership.
POSNER: Of the means of production. No. And we will
never have a system where you can hire someone else and use
someone's labor for your own enrichment. That will not happen.
KING: We go to Austin, Texas.
MAN: Mr. Posner, you argue incessantly that Americans
should not try to impose their system on-the Soviets. Well, in
the U.S. we know, through elections, what kind of a system our
citizens favor. But how, in the absence of elections, can we
possibly know what kind of a system Soviet citizens favor?
POSNER: I think you should know that there are
elections in the Soviet Union in which over 99 percent of the
people vote.
POSNER: Let me make a point here. I think it's
important to understand that if they did not want to vote, if
.they did not support the candidate, they just wouldn't go to the
polls. And I hope you don't think that they're herded there by
the police or the army. So the fact that 99 percent of the
people, on the average, do vote, I think, speaks of the support
they have for their government and for their system. This may
not be reported to you in full, but nevertheless that is a fact.
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KING: That's a fact.
POSNER: It's a fact.
KING: Do they campaign?
POSNER: Do the candidates speak? Absolutely. They
speak before...
meetings.
KING: Posters, signs, ads in newspapers?
POSNER: Posters, signs, and public, public with
POSNER: They explain what they want to do, why they're
candidates.
KING: You can't, though -- there's nowhere in the
Constitution of the United States that. mentions the word
capitalism. A socialist can be elected in the United States, and
some have. Can you change the system by vote?
by vote.
POSNER: In my country? In my country?
KING: Yeah. The United States could change the system
POSNER: -Since we have a one-party system, it would be
rather difficult to do. We once upon a time had a multiparty
system, after the Revolution. The majority of the people just
didn't want it, and one of the those parties tried to assassinate
Lenin. That was one of'the reasons why it didn't work.
But in other. socialist countries -- for instance,
Hungary or the German Democratic Republic -- there are multiparty
systems.
KING: Hungary seems to work.
. POSNER: Oh, I think it does. ,On the other hand,
Hungary has very serious economic problems, a huge foreign debt.
So we'll see how that goes.
KING: With Vladimir Posner, Santa Monica, California.
MAN: I was listening to the caller right before me ask
his question. I would say I have a response, really, to Vladi-
mir's answer to that. And I wonder how he can justify this
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notion that that's a democracy or voting, when there are only one
candidate or a couple of candidates that are government-approved
running, and people just go and vote as a formality. There's no
contest.
KING: Is.it a democracy?
POSNER: It is a different kind of democracy, and that's
very basic. However, it is not a formality. Because when people
actively go vote, they're expressing something. It is not a
formality for them. One of the ways of not -- you can refuse to
vote. You can cross out the name on the ballot and write in
someone else's if you wish.
KING: If people travel to the Soviet Union, are their
hotel rooms bugged?
POSNER: [Laughter] You know what?
KING: Everyone says that.
POSNER: Well, I know. But it would be -- just imagine.
We have about four million tourists a year. Imagine how many
people would have to be listening to all of this.
I think that anywhere in the world, if your secret
service has'a reason to be suspicious of a certain person, they
will follow that person and possibly bug his hotel room. But by
and large, I'd totally say that that's crazy.
people.
KING: If you're paranoidal, though, you'd bug a lot of
POSNER: Well, if you're paranoidal, you'd think that
you're being bugged all the time.
KING: True.
POSNER: Okay.
KING: You're saying that's not...
POSNER: I'm saying that's nonsense. I'm saying if
you're going to the Soviet Union with a certain purpose, with an
agenda, you want to do something against that country, well,
then, maybe you're right to be paranoidal.
KING: In the United States we can investigate on public
television our own CIA, chastise it, have members of the Senate
stand up and criticize it. Could that happen with the KGB in the
Soviet Union?
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POSNER: The KGB has been investigated and is subjected
to investigation by the Party.
KING: In public?
POSNER: And this has been published. Not on
television. Nor do we bring our cameras into-our...
KING: Now, as I guy who grew up, or,spent eight years
in New York, isn't that a part you'd like to see? Wouldn't you
like to seethe officials on television being grilled about...
POSNER: I've seen officials on television being
grilled. I'm talking about Ministers of the U.S.S.R. There's no
doubt about it. But I'm not sure the security issues, in any
country, should be part of the public debate. I'm not sure.
KING: As a journalist, really, you feel that way?
POSNER: I feel that sometimes it's exploited, it's
played with. It doesn't really serve any purpose.
KING: We'll be right back with Vladimir Posner.
KING: Our next caller is from Long.m'eadow,
Massachusetts.
MAN: I'd like to compliment Mr. Posner on his
eloquence.
But second, I'd like to ask him, what are your thoughts
on the revelations made by Arkady Shevchenko in his book
"Breaking with Moscow" on how Nikita Khrushchev's name is no
longer even mentioned in the Soviet Union?
POSNER: Well, first of all, I'd like to say that's not
true. His name is mentioned. He's in the history books.
And quite frankly, when we talk about a man like Arkady
Shevchenko, who betrayed is country -- he was a high-standing
official who began to work for the CIA -- I cannot accept the
honesty of anyone who would do that anywhere in the world,
regardless of what country he went to.
KING: Therefore, if an American defected to the Soviet
Union, you wouldn't buy his book either.
POSNER: I would not. I would not. I. don't like people
who betray their countries. I really don't accept them, and I
don't trust them.
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KING: Is anti-Semitism cultural?
POSNER: Yes. Absolutely.
KING: What can you.do about it?
POSNER: Educate people. And it takes a long time. I
mean even if you have all the laws in the world, it's going to
take generations to overcome prejudice. It's just not -- it
cannot happen by decree, by law; it has to be a long education.
KING: Is that something that made you bitter about
Russia at all, about the Soviet Union?
POSNER: No. I encountered anti-Semitism in the United
States. It was the first place I learned of it. I'm not bitter
about those things. I realize it's one of the banes of humanity.
But I am happy that in the Soviet Union there's a
tremendous effort to overcome that kind of prejudice. And it is
very dangerous for anyone to be anti-Semitic, for instance, in
public. You can go to jail for that.
KING: Really?
POSNER: Oh, yes.
KING: For speaking against Jews?
POSNER: For calling someone the equivalent -- excuse me
-- of a kike, you can go to jail.
KING: We go to Tarzana, California.
MAN: I wonder what Mr. Posner's thoughts are on the
anti-Soviet humor in American commericals, such as the Wendy's,
hamburgers, where the Soviet people are made to appear oafish and
ignorant, and also in the movies of Sylvester Stallone, where
they're presented as though they're ogres and...
KING: How do you view this?
POSNER: Well, I take the commercials as being in very
bad taste and capitalizing, more or less, on the American
standard image of what a Soviet is like.
I wouldn't compare them, however, with the Rambo and
Rocky things, which I would say are very chauvinistic and tend to
stimulate real hatred.
KING: Now you have a Soviet film coming out.
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POSNER: Which one?
KING: It's like Ramo.
POSNER: Oh, no.
KING: Oh, yeah.
POSNER: What's it calle?
KING: What's it called? I just saw an excerpt from it.
POSNER: I doubt this very much.
KING: Yes. Yes, it's coming.
POSNER: You mean the Soviets kill Americans?
KING: The Soviets kill...
POSNER: No, out of the question.
KING: There's a Rambo guy in it.
POSNER: Well, I'll tell you what. If such a film comes
out, I will publicly denounce it. I do not want to see a. Soviet
film where Soviets are killing Americans. I would totally be
against it.
KING: There are soldiers of fortune, and this guy takes
them on. There's machine guns and shooting and it's being...
POSNER: Where did you see this?
KING: It's playing in 200 theaters in the Soviet Union.
POSNER: What's it called, for God sakes?
KING: What's it called? I just saw a feature on it on
American television.
POSNER: I have to see this before l -- I mean I have to
see it to believe it.
KING: Vladimir, I'm telling you the truth. The is a
Soviet Rambo.' '
POSNER: I don't believe it. I do not believe it.
KING: In fact, they even said at the end they make one
mistake. They have him killed at the end.
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POSNER: Who?
KING: The Rambo, your Rambo.
POSNER: Our Rambo.
KING: Yeah. _And it was a mistake because you should
never kill off a Rambo, so you can make.Rambo II.
POSNER: [Laughter]
KING: You have not heard of this.
POSNER: Absolutely. I would like to. But I think
something's wrong there. _
KING: There is a Soviet film that is Rambo-like. It's
the talk of Moscow. It's playing in 200 theaters in Moscow.
It's the biggest hit in the Soviet Union.
POSNER: Well, why haven't I heard about it?
KING: All right. Who's the number one star in the
Soviet Union? He's got a moustache. A good-looking, guy. He
looks like Omar Sharif. A big film star. He's the star.
POSNER: Really?
KING: And I saw the scene where he's shot. He's shot
in the back. And then all of his buddies get enraged and avenge
his death.
. POSNER: Well, you've got me. I really don't know about
it. I want to see this film. I really want to see it. I'm
going to call my wife tonight and ask her about it.
KING: And if it's as I say, you denounce it.
POSNER: I denounce it. I do not want to see films
where Soviets kill Americans.
KING: One more call for Vladimir, and it's Long Island.
MAN: Vladimir, [speaks in Russia]. And the other night
on Crossfire, I heard you say that the Russians have no desire
for the Americans to be like them. Yet, to me, that's contrary
to all that I know about Russian -- I should say contrary to what
I know about the Soviet doctrine of the dialectic, where your
purpose is to revolutionize the world and have everybody
communized.
KING: Aren't you out to do that?
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POSNER: I'm afraid that there is no such Soviet
doctrine. Dialectics is something that Marx developed and that
there is a view that one day, gradually, as societies develop all
,around the world, they will go to socialism and on to that.
There is no desire to revolutionize.
And we accept America as it is. And we would like to be
accepted as we are.
KING: Okay, Vladimir. In the closing I'm going to, show
you a clip.
[Inaudible remarks]
KING: This is a clip from the biggest hit in Moscow.
You've been away. It's a smasheroo. Moscow Variety says boffo.
"The Lonely Voyage."
[Film clip]
KING: I think this is where he gets killed, Vladimir.
This may be the scene. Yep, he's going to get shot in the back.
There he is. That's the star. Now these guys get really ticked.
That's the movie.
POSNER: And who are they fighting?
KING: Looks like Americans to me.
POSNER: It doesn't look like Americans to me.
KING: Who would you...
POSNER: I am ready -- this may be guerrilla warfare
somewhere. I don't know. But I am willing to bet right now that
those are not Americans that they're fighting.
KING: Okay. We'll check it.
Thank you very much, Vlad.
Who do you root for in baseball?
POSNER: New York Yankees. I used to be a Joe DiMaggio
KING: You see, it can't leave you.
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