On June 24th 1973 Leonid Brezhnev became the first Soviet leader to directly address the American people on television and radio. :

“Dear Americans,

I highly appreciate this opportunity of directly addressing the people of the United States on my visit to your country. I would like, first of all, to convey to all of you the greetings and friendly feelings of millions of Soviet people who are following with great interest my visit to your country and our talks with President Nixon, and who are looking forward to this new Soviet-American summit meeting making a fruitful contribution to better relations between our countries and stronger universal peace.

Our discussions with President Nixon and other United States Government officials have been going on for several days, and they have been very intensive indeed. We came to this country anticipating that these would be responsible negotiations devoted to major questions bearing on the development of SovietAmerican relations and to a search for ways in which our two nations could promote the further invigoration of the entire international atmosphere.

Today I have every reason to say that those hopes were justified. We are satisfied with the way the talks went and with the results already achieved. New agreements have been signed in Washington, and in many respects, they broaden the sphere of peaceful and mutually advantageous cooperation between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics…

Let me say frankly that personally I am also pleased that this visit has given me an opportunity to gain some first-hand impressions of America, to see some aspects of the American way of life, to meet with prominent government and public leaders of your country, and to have some contact with the life of Americans. You are well aware that in the past, relations between our countries developed very unevenly. There were periods of stagnation; there were ups and downs. But I guess I would not be making a mistake if I said that the significance of good relations between the Soviet Union and the United States has always been quite clear to the more far-sighted statesmen…

In World War II the Soviet Union and the United States became allies and fought side by side against Nazism, which threatened the freedom of nations and civilisation itself. The jubilant meeting of Soviet and American soldiers on the Elbe River at the hour of victory over Hitlerism is well remembered in our country. The wartime alliance could have been expected to usher in a new era of broad peaceful cooperation between the Soviet Union and the United States. I can tell you with confidence that that is what our country wanted. We wanted to cement and develop the good relations whose foundations had been laid during the war…

By and large, we can say that quite a lot has already been done to develop Soviet-American relations. Yet we are still only at the beginning of a long road. Constant care is needed to preserve and develop the new shoots of good relationships. Tireless efforts are needed to define the most essential and most suitable forms of cooperation in various fields. Patience is needed to understand the various specific features of the other side and to learn to do business with each other.

I believe those who support a radical improvement in relations between the Soviet Union and the United States can look to the future with optimism, for this objective meets the vital interests of both our nations and the interests of peace-loving people all over the world…

Mankind has outgrown the rigid Cold War armour which it was once forced to wear. It wants to breathe freely and peacefully. And we will be happy if our efforts to better Soviet-American relations help draw more and more nations into the process of détente — be it in Europe or Asia, in Africa or Latin America, in the Middle or the Far East…

While still in Moscow, and then here in the United States, I received many warm letters from various American cities, organisations, companies, and private citizens kindly inviting me to visit this or that town, to see plants, farms and universities, or to be a guest in the homes of Americans. I am taking this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude to all those who wrote such letters. I regret that, for the reasons I have just mentioned, I was unable to take up those invitations…

But even though this brief visit did not give me a chance to see as much as I would like to in America, I nevertheless have every reason, when I return home, to tell my colleagues and all Soviet people both about the important political results of the visit and about the atmosphere of goodwill and the trend in favour of peace, of détente, and of improving relations between our two countries. It is a trend which we felt during our stay in the United States and during our contacts with government and public leaders of your country, and with many American citizens. I can assure you that these feelings are fully shared by Soviet people…

In conclusion, I want to express my sincere, gratitude to the American people, to the President and the government of the United States for their hospitality, for their kindness, and numerous expressions of warm feelings toward the Soviet people and us, their representatives. Dear Americans, please accept my wishes for well-being and happiness to all of you.”