The Foreign Service Journal, May 2023

40 MAY 2023 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL Tapping an Intense Interest in America Allan Mustard Agriculture USA / Kishinev, Moscow, Rostov-na-Donu / 1978-1979 which for the guides with no farm or ag background proved very useful. I was mostly familiar with dairying, so learn- ing about Midwest agriculture—corn and soybeans—was useful. After that training, we were pretty much on our own, but we always had Tom Robertson, John Beyrle, and Jocelyn Greene, who were experienced former guides, to go to for advice. Maybe a maximum of 10 percent of the questions were rooted in disinformation. Some of them came from professional agitators we assumed were employees of the KGB. Audiences asked all kinds of questions: How much does food cost in America? How much do you earn? Do you have brothers and sisters? What do your parents do for a living? What kind of music is popular in America? Very basic stuff. Because it was an agricultural exhibit—and many Rus- sians in the 1970s had private plots, and if they were not FromOctober 1978 to June 1979, I was an exhibit guide for Agriculture USA. The exhibit director was TomCraig, deputy director was Tom Robertson, John R. Beyrle was general services officer, and information officer was Jocelyn Greene. I was on the second half, which visited Kishinev (now Chi- sinau, capital of independent Moldova), Moscow, and Ros- tov-na-Donu. My assignments were the milking parlor stand, with a horrible dummy cow covered in flower-patterned fabric, and as an interpreter in the library. The only script we had was a canned speech we had to memorize related to our specific stand on the exhibit, which we used for opening day ceremonies when dignitaries walked through. Our instructions going in were to be ourselves, and to express our opinions freely. We had a two-week crash course in agriculture organized by the University of Illinois, Three Agriculture USA exhibit guides in Rostov-na-Donu in 1979. From left: Allan Mustard, Mark Bloom, and Richard Vogen. COURTESYOFJOHNBEYRLE