FOREIGN RELATIONS: Out of the Eye

Leathery, poker-faced U.S. Ambassador Alan G. Kirk, Admiral, U.S.N. (ret.), came home for a holiday visit from his Moscow post, where he had found himself a mariner becalmed in the eye of a hurricane. He slipped in quietly to see Harry Truman, reportedly told the President he could detect "absolutely no evidence" that Russia is about to start a war.

To reporters outside, he told how little evidence on any subject a diplomat in Moscow can see. He hadn't talked to Joe Stalin since he presented his credentials 16 months ago, he said. But he did manage to catch long-distance glimpses of the Soviet Premier last June during a Soviet public ceremony, and thought he looked "strong, active and alert."

For capitalist ambassadors like Admiral Kirk, day-to-day travel in the U.S.S.R. is restricted to a 30-mile zone around Moscow. To go beyond, he must have a special pass and travel by a route designated by the government. If he stays at Spasso House, the U.S. embassy, he sees no Russians at all: "They're not allowed to come to the embassy, so there's no contact."

At no time, said Kirk, can he shake the four Russian guards assigned for his "protection." They pick him up at the embassy gate and go wherever he goes. Sometimes, to ease the monotony, he gives them cigarettes, he explained. "But don't get the idea," he added scrupulously, "that I'm buddies with those guys."