Uncle Anatoly

Anatoly Dobrynin, 1919-2010.

With longevity rare for Soviet officials abroad, Mr. Dobrynin became a Washington celebrity, photographed meeting with presidents in the Oval Office or bantering with diplomats and reporters at receptions. But he was also comfortable with back channels, meeting officials secretly at the White House or slipping into the State Department garage in his limousine for delicate talks upstairs.

His tenure began in 1962 with the most dangerous confrontation of the nuclear age. Khrushchev, gambling for strategic advantage, had set up missile bases in Cuba, and President John F. Kennedy had blockaded Soviet ships that were carrying missiles. As pressure on Kennedy to bomb or invade Cuba mounted, his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, met secretly three times with Mr. Dobrynin in October.

Those meetings were critical, enabling President Kennedy and Khrushchev to communicate freely. After each, Mr. Dobrynin cabled Khrushchev, and the attorney general briefed the president. Robert Kennedy later disclosed that Mr. Dobrynin had remained calm through the crisis, analyzing options and speaking carefully.

The solution to the crisis had two parts: a public American pledge not to invade Cuba in exchange for withdrawal of the Soviet missiles, and a private Kennedy agreement to withdraw obsolete missiles from Turkey and Italy. Historians say that the latter was a face-saving device for Khrushchev, and that the president wanted it private so that it would not seem a concession to nuclear blackmail.