Anatoly Dobrynin, who negotiated arms treaties, helped settle the Cuban missile crisis and was the dean of Washington’s international diplomatic corps during his 24 years as Soviet ambassador to the United States, died Tuesday in Russia at the age of 90.
The Russian government did not release the place or cause of death.
Dobrynin, the chief representative of the Soviet Union in the United States throughout the Cold War, helped pull the two superpowers back from the brink of war in the 1962 missile crisis, and his mastery of secretive “back-channel” diplomacy led to a new era of detente and the end of the nuclear arms race in the 1970s.
Few diplomats from the Soviet era understood the United States as well as the affable, English-speaking Dobrynin, who first came to Washington in 1952.
Equally committed to his communist ideals and to a belief that the two international adversaries could coexist in peace, he cultivated a wide network that included presidents, congressmen and journalists. He and U.S. envoy Henry Kissinger had an especially close and sometimes fruitful diplomatic friendship.
“Subtle and disciplined, warm in his demeanor while wary in his conduct,” Kissinger once wrote, “Dobrynin moved through the upper echelons of Washington with consummate skill.”
Seven months after he presented his credentials as Soviet ambassador to President John F. Kennedy, U.S. spy planes detected Soviet missiles in Cuba in October 1962. As Soviet ships moved toward Cuba, Kennedy ordered a naval blockade of the island nation, and a 13-day standoff almost led to a nuclear showdown.
Negotiating directly with Kennedy, Dobrynin suggested that the United States remove its missiles from Turkey in return for a Soviet withdrawal from Cuba. Dobrynin knew that the agreement would be seen as a face-saving move in the Kremlin.
For the next quarter century, Dobrynin’s presence was felt in almost every diplomatic maneuver of the Cold War.
Other Deaths
Corin Redgrave, 70, the scion of an acting dynasty who shone equally in light comedy and Shakespearean tragedy and who was a committed Marxist, died Tuesday at his home in London.
No cause of death was reported, but Redgrave had several health setbacks in recent years, including a heart attack in 2005 soon after a demanding run as King Lear for the Royal Shakespeare Company.
The Redgraves have been a leading British thespian family for generations, stretching well back into the 19th century. Corin Redgrave was the son of actor Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson and the brother of actresses Vanessa Redgrave and Lynn Redgrave.
Like his sister Vanessa, Redgrave was a social activist in causes of the hard left.
Malcolm McLaren, 64, the former manager of the Sex Pistols and one of the seminal figures of the punk rock era, died Thursday, his son said.
Joe Corre said his father died of an aggressive form of cancer in Switzerland.
McLaren is best known for his work with the Pistols, whose violence, swearing and anti-establishment antics shocked Britain and revolutionized the world music scene. The band’s career owed much to their manager’s talent for self-promotion.
But McLaren, an art school dropout, was first known for his fashion and the infamous clothes shop he opened on London’s King’s Road with his girlfriend Vivienne Westwood in 1971.
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