Andre Gromyko was installed as Soviet Foreign Minister on February 17, 1957. Gromyko was called to foreign service in 1939 and began by serving under a policy of cooperation with the Nazis before Hitler’s attack on Russia. After World War II he became an expert at Cold War diplomacy. Seen first as a hard liner, he shifted his positions as the times demanded. He served through three decades, surviving most of the Soviet leaders he worked for and most of the world leaders with whom he quarreled and negotiated.
This Day In History: February 17
