Leonid Misses the Turn
In 1979, Leonid Brezhnev traveled to Vienna to meet with Jimmy Carter and sign the SALT-II agreement.
While he was there, the Soviet leader participated in a wreath-laying ceremony. Here’s how the journalist Hedrick Smith, who was at the ceremony and saw the thing happen, describes the moment in his book The New Russians:
In other news, the President of the United States has just given a speech to say that the United States of America sent Javelin antitank weapons to Russia so that Russia could fight Russia.
Hungarians, he added, are very grateful for their Javelins.
BIDEN: "Just a few days ago the Wall Street Journal quotes a young *Hungarian* fighter saying, and I quote, 'without the javelins, it would have been very hard to stop the enemy pushing ahead.'"
”Nevertheless he stayed in office three more years, his geriatric decline a symbol of the general stagnation and drift that was afflicting his country.”
Well first of all, the Russians didn't have Botox and teeth-whitening in those days. So there's that. Plus, Susan Rice is enjoying being President so we should all just shut up.
Better to be rescued by Chernenko than the Easter Bunny.