The Tashkent Crisis

Начало книги

Because the events in this book span three continents, the reader should be aware of the precise differences in time zones.

Like the United States, the Soviet Union also has several time zones. Soviet Central Asia is three hours ahead of Moscow. Moscow is two hours ahead of Western European cities, such as London, Geneva, and Paris. Western Europe is six hours ahead of cities in the eastern time zone of the United States, such as Washington and New York.

For example, when it is 11:18 P.M. in Washington, it is 5:18 A.M. in Paris, 7:18 A.M. in Moscow, and 10:18 A.M. in Tashkent, Soviet Central Asia.

It was spring in Washington, D.C., and tourists thronged the esplanades around the Potomac basin, admiring the cherry trees in full bloom. Some wandered over to the memorials for Lincoln and Jefferson and recited the words the Presidents had left for future generations to ponder. Others went to the halls of Congress where their representatives were deliberating issues that affected their daily lives. They invaded the galleries of the Senate and House and saw the machinery of government running sluggishly in the chambers below. At the end of the dull sessions, the tourists dispersed through the stately corridors. A few brushed by a door in the Senate Building where a guard stood watching the visitors with bored detachment. None of the tourists stopped to ask the guard what he was defending. If they had, he would have said, “A closed door session of the Appropriations Committee,” and no one would have bothered to press the issue with him. The guard watched the last straggler pass by and shifted his tired feet while he waited for the senators to emerge and let him go home.

Читать дальше →