The first toast would have been to “zdorovye” (health). Then came a toast for “the dead.” Then several toasts for the women. A toast to President Eisenhower. A toast to Prime Minister St. Laurent. A toast to the Canadian wheat surplus.
Ounce after ounce of pepper vodka. The Canadian delegation could barely put down their glasses before their host, Soviet premier Nikita Khruschev, ordered that it be refilled.
It had all started so innocently; some food and conversation after a day of tense negotiations. But as a liquored haze overtook them, and the eyes of their Russian hosts narrowed, the four Canadians …read more
Source: National Newswatch
