Kellie McConnell

“I asked Hull whether he thought there would be a true postwar co-operative peace without full Russian participation and he said No. Then I ask him if he foresaw Russian cooperation and he said: 'Russia has the alternative to live alone, armed to the teeth as she has been most constantly since the days of Catherine the Great (although not always securely enough armed) or to become a full part of the world, to make and receive concessions in a mutual international cooperative scheme. Our policy has been and will continue to be one of seeking to build up true abroad especially, in this case, in Russia. I hope that Russia will see the light and will take its full part in an ordered world after the war.”
― C.L. Sulzberger

“A person who doesn't have friends must explain himself to strangers, I read that in a poem once, and I saw how even my "best" friends were thusly unreal: I had to explain myself constantly, always, to everyone.”
― Elisa Albert, After Birth

“In May I left Marina and once again headed for Moscow. I drove slowly across the Sinai Desert and
Palestine, over the Lebanon and Syria to Iraq, talking with the bickering political leaders. One of Emire Abdullah's ministers, a courtly scholar named Samir Raifai, quoted to me a verse from Ibn an-Mu'tazz: 'The Pleiades in the latter part of the night resemble the opening of a silver-studded bridle.' He told me that an Arab prided himself most on three things: the birth of a boy, the emergence of a poet, and the foaling of a mare. He spoke at length about the emergence in Arabia of three great religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, because of the proximity of man and the eternal, the nearness of the stars, and the lack of any insignificant trifles to deflect philosophical contemplation. Then he added: 'Now I fear tranquility is gone. There are times of bitter trouble ahead, of killing.”
― C.L. Sulzberger

“The Americans were appalled by Russian toughness. A drunken Soviet officer was arrested by British MPs and turned over to the Russians. The next day a note of apology was sent to the Persian government and the British mission by the Red Army's local command. The note said rather curiously that the officer would have been severely reprimanded 'but unfortunately he died during the night.' Connolly told me a veteran Soviet pilot accepted delivery of one of the P-39s we had been furnishing to the Russians. They were assembled in Iran and flown up b Soviet pilots. This poor character ran his plane into a mountain. Connolly decided it would be a nice gesture to put on a special funeral. The American commander and some of his chief officers showed up for the service but the Russians only sent a minor official. This official arose and spoke: 'Stalin said a soldier must know his weapons. Obviously this pilot did not. And he committed the unpardonable crime of smashing up a valuable plane.' That was all. There was embarrassed silence among the Americans.”
― C.L. Sulzberger