Book Review: Assignment Russia - Marvin Kalb’s Memoir
By C. Naseer Ahmad
Washington, DC
During the 1980s Afghan War, CBS anchorman Dan Rather donned an Afghan garb to report from the front lines in Afghanistan. Interestingly, Dan Rather’s brief comments: “Marvin Kalb is a great storyteller with a great story to tell” are on the cover of “Assignment Russia,” a memoir becoming a foreign correspondent in the crucible of the Cold War.
Journalism’s icon Kalb, 90, could easily pass for a Pashtun fighter, if he wore a turban and grew some facial hair. But then there could be the risk of an indefinite stay Hotel Guantanamo. After all, he was on Nixon’s enemy list and a member of the press, whom some have called the “enemy of the people.”
Readers should be forewarned that once they pick up the book, it will be hard to put it down until they reach the end. And wisdom demands that one has to keep the end in mind before the beginning. The penultimate sentence of the book encapsulates Kalb’s philosophy, work ethic and his stellar record: “I worked in the Murrow ‘tradition’ of fairness, decency, and unafraid journalism.”
The book will take the readers on a journey, as if a body camera is mounted on Kalb, who was hired at CBS by Edward R. Morrow in June 1957, considered a paragon of virtue for establishing the tradition of unbiased journalism and for standing up to Senator Joe McCarthy. The opening scenes start at the ungodly hours during the graveyard shift at CBS news. Readers will learn how to write for a radio broadcast, as opposed to book reviews or opinion pieces.
With each passing moment and as promising opportunities arise, readers will follow Kalb’s dream of becoming the CBS correspondent in Moscow, given his fluency in the Russian language, his knowledge of Russian history and his Soviet era contacts. Along the way, readers will meet luminaries who were household names or later to become famous radio and television personalities.
Readers will find Kalb to give credit where credit is due because he attributes his success to his Editor Hal Terkel, his wife of 60+ years ‘Mady’, his brother Bernard, of course Morrow and so many who helped him steadily but rapidly get to his goal. This is really refreshing because the book is about a professional journey, not an ego trip.
It is possible that when the reader comes across the reference to events starting at around 5am June 27, 1957 it will become clear that Kalb is not only a gifted storyteller but also one with an amazing memory. Throughout the book there are more recollections of some fascinating events in detail. For those, who know him as “Marvin,” the book is a validation of what he has shared with friends across the dinner table in the Lafayette Room in the Cosmos Club, Washington. The text is the narration of the same gentle way of talking, free of bombastic language and almost always expressing gratitude to his mentor Morrow.
For anyone who has been fortunate to experience the early morning aromas coming out of Parisian Boulangeries, there is a special treat – a morning stroll with the late Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, starting out from the gates of the Soviet Embassy in Paris, and sharing of freshly baked croissants.
Before the age of ‘fire and fury’ and the ‘little rocket man’ in North Korea, there was Khrushchev, banging his shoes on the table at the United Nations. So obviously with is mercurial personality there were fears of a nuclear war. But Kalb’s conversations with Khrushchev were not only civil but also making Khrushchev into a rational and almost loveable human being.
The downing of the U2 spy plane by the Soviets on May 1, 1960 was a major incident, which was not only an irritant but perhaps the cause of the failure of the Paris Summit between Khrushchev and US President Eisenhower. Because the plane took off from the Badaber Base, Peshawar, Pakistan, and many believe that Khrushchev was so upset that he had the city red marked on the targets list map. Kalb’s interview with Khrushchev in Paris provides a first-hand insight into the Soviet thinking about the U2 incident.
Some readers, looking for gallantry and gore, might be a bit disappointed not to find any mention of the Battle of the Bulge – because there isn’t any, for it was in a different era. But there is a riveting account of the ‘War for the Bed’ waged in Hotel Metropol, Moscow. Specifically, the struggles of a 6’ 3” tall man trying to sleep in a 5’ 10” bed. For anyone who has worked in distant capitals of the world, the skirmishes with inflexible bureaucracy are all too familiar and the heart goes out for Kalb looking for an aggregable solution in the pages that follow. Those who believe in miracles will find it reassuring that Kalb’s problem is miraculously solved by someone who appeared to be an unsympathetic person in earlier pages.
Perhaps the most moving part of the book is the respect Kalb shows for Boris Pasternak, author of ‘Dr Zhivago.’ Readers might also come to tears when they read the description of Pasternak’s funeral by Kalb.
‘Assignment Russia’ and its predecessor ‘The Year I was Peter the Great’ are the two must-have items for any journey – maybe even on ‘Awami Express,’ the train running between Peshawar and Karachi since 195. Chances are that after absorbing these books, the reader might break out saying ‘wah wah’ – understood to mean excellent in many languages: Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi and Pashto.
