When I was a child, “good Catholics” went to church
“Russian who didn’t sound Russian.”) Koppel’s positive
Soviets had pledged their devotion: “Why do you allow old men behind closed doors to decide what is good for
every Sunday and prayed for “the conversion of Russia” af- review of Pozner eased my Commie-sympathizer anxiety
you? Why does it say ‘Jew’ on certain of your passports? Why is Sakharov in exile in Gorky?” As the camera slowly
ter every mass. Russians didn’t believe in God, they were although he did caution, “They might rig the interpreters.”
panned the faces of the Leningrad assembly the shock was palpable. These ambushed Soviets were the deer and I
part of an empire that was evil and existed behind a curtain
was the headlight. Never had so many Russians heard such harsh criticism of their own country on their own public
made of iron. To the faithful in Our Lady of Angels parish My “Space Bridge” co-host Vladimir Pozner was born in
television. What followed was a two-and-half hour candid exchange between the citizens of both countries. I am told
on Cleveland’s west side, no one needed prayers more than Paris to a French Catholic mother and a Russian Jewish fa-
Mr. Gorbachev reviewed the tape and commented, “This will be our gift to the 27th Congress of the Communist Party.”
the Russians. Why then, in the middle of the Reagan years, ther. At age five, little Volodya came to New York City with
The Soviet TV producers started breathing again.
was the good Catholic Phil Donahue cavorting with these his parents, attended City & Country School in Manhattan, godforsaken people?
and was soon a student at Stuyvesant High School. In 1948,
The program aired across eleven time zones, and Vladimir received 87,000 letters. I surely looked like a very boorish
the devoutly communist Pozner Sr., who had previously
houseguest taking self-righteousness to a new lower level. (But Ted, I was not censored. Promise kept.) It’s been
Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in March 1985. A new worked for MGM, fled the Red Scare with his family to
twenty-eight years since this career moment of my life. I’ve met hundreds of Russians here and there. Vlad and I
leader materialized on the front pages of the world’s news- East Germany. In 1952 the Soviet Government provided a papers. He promised a new nation, one of freedom and Moscow apartment for the new citizens who arrived shortly openness, a restructuring of old Kremlin ways that would before Stalin died. Five years later, young Vladimir gradu-
PHIL DONAHUE include free speech and elections. Glasnost and Perestroika ated from Moscow U. with a degree in biology. He was were the new words in the world dictionary, openness and speaking four languages without an accent. Today Vladimir restructuring. Almost none of the praying Catholics on Pozner is the most recognized TV news face in all of RusCleveland’s west side believed it.
sia’s eleven time zones.
The first and most visible expression of Gorbachev’s com- Ten minutes into our Space Bridge featuring 300 Americans mitment to change was a project called the “Space Bridge,” in Seattle and 300 Soviets in Leningrad, all wearing heada satellite conversation between Americans in Seattle and sets, I let loose with a simultaneously translated barrage of Soviets in what was then Leningrad. I accepted the invi- observations critical of the country to which the stunned tation to host the American side, but only after pondering
have shared the stage at my alma mater, The University of Notre Dame. I have taken questions from Russian students
several questions: Would Americans consider me a dupe,
in Siberia and the Gorky Palace of Culture in what is now St. Petersburg. “If you came to the United States, where
a pointy-headed liberal sucked into a KGB public relations
would you like to visit?” I asked. Hands went up everywhere in the audience: “Las Vegas.” “Disney World.” “Oxford,
campaign? I was already thought of as a political lefty, not
Mississippi.” “Why Oxford, Mississippi?” I asked. I heard the interpreter in my earphones, “Because that is the home
a popular label for an eighties TV sort. Who was Vladimir
of your great author, William Faulkner.”
Pozner, the Communist Party member who would host the other side of the debate half way around the world?
None of this could have happened without the wisdom and courage of President Gorbachev. I eagerly look forward
Would I be censored?
to the September moment when Vlad and I share the stage with him at the Nantucket Project. I want to thank him
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My research: Ted Koppel told me he “liked” Pozner
the pictures in the paper on the day after 9/11. Less than twenty-four hours after “The Towers” the entire front of the
(Vladimir first appeared on Nightline in 1980. He was the
American Embassy in Moscow was covered with flowers. Within the breast of Mother Russia beats a kind and loving heart and I will never pray for her “conversion” again.
N magazine
N magazine
personally for parting the Iron Curtain allowing me to meet a lot of very nice people. I want him to know that I saw
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