The Nation: Eating Cereal in the House of the Czars

TIME Washington Bureau Chief Hugh Sidey kept a close eye on President Nixon's movements in Moscow. His impressions:

RICHARD NIXON'S valet brought him his dry cereal, fruit juice and coffee every morning in the dining room of the Kremlin apartment, a vaulted chamber where the czars once walked. He consumed his modest breakfast quickly and moved on into a paneled study for his early briefings and last-minute musing. The study always had the clean, swept look of Nixon. His pipe was cradled in a clean ashtray. The papers he needed were lined up. His two briefcases were set in exact positions...