VOICE OF AMERICA AND THE VICISSITUDES OF ONE POLITICAL LIFE
Like most of the characters profiled in Politics with Principle, Dick Carlson has experienced the vicissitudes of popularity as a politician. Dick ran for Mayor of San Diego but was defeated. Undaunted by this loss on the local stage of politics, thing would work out for the best. On the national stage he headed the Voice of America during the late Cold War and served as an Ambassador during the first Bush administration. Orphaned by a teenage mother, he also worked as a journalist, TV news anchor, sailor, and president of King World Productions. It is an understatement to say he has had an interesting career.
Dick’s adventures have not only provided him with a rich array of experiences, but they’ve also put him in a position of power to help others. Once Dick and his wife Patricia met, late at night, in a grim Moscow flat with a twelve-year-old Russian girl named Vera, a VOA fan who listened surreptitiously to the jammed broadcasts with her parents. Vera had curly red hair and bright blue eyes, spoke perfect English, played classical piano, and loved the idea of democracy. Most of all, she said, she loved the cartoon character Garfield, who she had once seen in a British newspaper. Why? “Because he’s my hero,” said Vera. “He’s tough. He doesn’t put up with a lot of foolishness from others. He is free. He is American.”
When Vera hugged Dick and Patricia goodbye, she said, “I will be coming to America some day; I will see you again.” The poignancy of this moment was underscored by the Carlsons’ knowledge that Vera’s father was a Soviet physicist who had applied to emigrate with his family, and had been vehemently refused by the Communist authorities. Dick was struck by Vera’s charm and intelligence. When he arrived back in Washington, he wrote Jim Davis, the creator of Garfield. Dick explained about Vera’s affection for the cartoon cat, and asked for a drawing for her. Davis sent one signed to “My friend Vera,” which Carlson put into the diplomatic pouch at the State Department and had delivered to Vera through an embassy officer in Moscow.
A few weeks later, at a Washington dinner party, Dick told the story of Vera and Garfield to a Reagan administration speechwriter. “Why don’t you ask the President to help her get out?” Dick said. At that time, President Reagan was preparing for his historic trip to the Soviet Union to meet with President Gorbachev. The message got to President Reagan. A deal was secretly struck with the Soviets. One month after President Reagan returned from Moscow, Vera and her mother and father stepped out of a U.S. government limousine in front of the Voice of America offices on Independence Avenue in Washington. Dick and Patricia Carlson were waiting on the front steps. Vera bounded up and hugged both of them. The first thing she said? “I told you I would see you again—in America!”
Vera Zieman and her parents settled in Massachusetts. Vera graduated from Tufts University and is now a respected scientist and an accomplished musician. She was recently married, and has a baby and enjoys a good life in America. Dick Carlson made this possible because he cared about her, loved his country, and wanted a young girl with big dreams to realize her desire for American freedom.