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...
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