A Chilly Souvenir from Moscow

Soviet Defense Minister Dmitri Ustinov was briefing a top-level Nicaraguan delegation over dinner in Moscow earlier this year. Emboldened by vodka, Defense Minister Humberto Ortega Saavedra demanded of Ustinov, "Are you with us to the end, or will you abandon us to the U.S.?" According to an exSandinista official, Ustinov stared back in stony silence and ignored the question. The next day, however, the Nicaraguans received a formal note from the Foreign Ministry saying that the Soviet Union would honor its ties of friendship and cooperation with the people of Nicaragua. But in the final analysis, the note added, Nicaragua's last line of defense would be Nicaragua.

The visiting Sandinistas got the message: Mother Russia is hibernating not only from its Western contacts but even from its allies. The Nicaraguans, who had come to Moscow seeking both arms and economic aid, left with little more than the chilly diplomatic note as a souvenir.