FOREIGN RELATIONS: Spasibo & Farewell!

There was not a baggy suit among the lot of them, or a frown, when twelve visiting Russian farm officials showed up at the Department of Agriculture last week for an appointment with Secretary Ezra Taft Benson. Bald and effusive, Russia's Deputy Minister of Agriculture Vladimir Matskevich presented Benson with a couple of souvenir lacquered boxes, one of them showing a family of bears gamboling happily in a forest. Benson asked how to say "thank you" in Russian, said "spasibo," and handed Matskevich a 4-H Club tie-clip, a photograph of the Benson family and a book entitled Plant Diseases....

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!