Anatoly Dobrynin arrived in Washington in 1962. He was only 43, the youngest man ever to serve as Soviet ambassador to the United States. Amazingly, he remained in Washington through the presidencied of Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan. Dobrynin became the main back channel for the White House and Kremlin to exchange ideas, negotiate in secret, and set up summit meetings. This arrangement became known as confidential channel. Through this channel and his more public duties as ambassador he came to know the presidents, their most senior officials, and many memebers of the American establishment intimately. 'In Confidence' is the story of those relationships.
