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see that we didn't go where we weren't supposed to go. I don't know whether that was it, but that was the impression they gave and the feeling they gave. It was that they were posted there to see that we and other visitors made their way out by the shortest route to the front door. There a beaming man, now fully dressed in his uniform, not having to put his coat on, opened the door and let us out, beaming and smiling and nodding and very pleasant. So were both of the men in the hall.
The whole downstairs of the Embassy has an awfully kind of a run-down look, over what it had been when they originally took it over. That was partly because the two side rooms, one on wither side of the door, were used as offices, and there were typewriters clicking and so forth. That is, the Russians used that house, more than other Embassies use their ambassadorial residence, as a workshop and it showed the marks of a workshop. There were papers around, and packing cases half unpacked, that kind of thing. Although of course, on occasions of their large entertainments, receptions and so forth, those were all out of sight, and the place looked very handsome--you know, flowers and so forth around.
This was my first interview with Gromyko. I let about a month elapse, thinking that that would be time for the slowest of posts and considerations to get the papers
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