and escaped would attest dramatically and convincingly to these truths before all the world.
Crossing the North Carolina border into Virginia, he still was pointed toward the Embassy. But as in all other crises, he tried to be Spartacus, to summon forth the best within himself, to think logically.
About 2:00 A.M. north of Richmond, the fever broke, and Belenko first knew it when his hands began to shake on the steering wheel. He was so physically weak that he had to rest, and he pulled in at a truck stop.
An elderly waitress with faded blond hair and a face worn by many years gave him coffee and studied him. “Honey, you been smoking?”
“What?”
“If you’re on pot, you ought to let it wear off before you drive anymore. How about some breakfast?”
“Just leave me alone.”
“No, honey, I’m going to get you some breakfast. You need something to eat. It’s on the house.”
Around 4:00 A.M. he leaned on the doorbell at Peter’s house, ringing it continuously until Peter, in pajamas, opened the door. Trained to be most poised in the presence of danger, Peter was calm. “I see you’re in trouble. Come in.”
Slowly, with shame, Belenko told him, taking almost two hours.
“Viktor, I wish you had called me. But I can’t criticize you. This is not uncommon. I should have recognized the signs when you were here last month. Now it’s over; you are immunized. It would have been a great tragedy, most of all for you. Someday you will see that because you are the way you are and because there is freedom here, the United States is more your homeland than the Soviet Union ever could be.”
“I must go tell Gregg.”
“Don’t worry about that. Get some sleep. We’ll let him know.”
“No. I must do it myself.”
Harassed by early calls from his Pentagon office, behind schedule, and half-dressed, Gregg was irritated by the unexpected appearance of Belenko.
“I have to talk to you.”
“Make it quick; I’m late.”
After Belenko had spoken for a couple of minutes or so, Gregg picked up the phone and dialed his office. “I won’t be in this morning. Call me here if you need me.” He listened without comment or interruption until Belenko concluded his recitation of the crisis he had just survived.
“Viktor, I think you’re finally free. Let’s take the day off and go fly.”
As Belenko climbed up over the Potomac estuary and soared above the Chesapeake Bay, he felt, he knew Gregg was right.
Index
Agriculture, in USSR, 26-27
harvest, 51-52,72, 87-88
Khrushchev’s plan, 37-38
Air Force, U.S.: fighter base, 156
Aircraft carrier: U.S. Navy, 161-164
Alcohol consumption, 12, 35-36, 95
aircraft alcohol, 82-83,98
United States, 159
workers, 46, 54
Alekseyevna, Nadezhda, 48, 49, 50, 51, 53, 59
Armament production:
Omsk, USSR, 44, 53
Armavir, USSR, 61-63, 65-66,72
B-1 (aircraft), 74
B-70 (aircraft), plans for, 177, 179
Baltimore Sun: editorial quoted, 138
Bandera, Stepan, 99n
Belenko, Viktor Ivanovich:
DOSAAF training:
flight, 49-50
pre-flight, 47-48
father, 23, 25, 26-27, 29, 30, 64
flight-instructor duty, 81-85
Japan, stay in, 109-122
lifestyle, 22
alcohol use, 36, 217
Belenko, Viktor Ivanovich:
medical-school career, 51,52
mother: press-conference appearance, 137
physical appearance, 8-9
recovery by Russians, importance of, 124—125
Soviet Army cadet training, 62-63, 65-75
stepmother, 29-30, 33,64
United States, 142-213
wife, 8
worker, 44-47, 53-57, 58
youth, 23-44
boxing mastery, 33,35
pranks, 32-33
reading habits, 31, 32, 33, 41
schooling, 27, 28, 30-31, 40-41, 42-44
Brezhnev, Leonid I., 40, 88
Brown, Frederick, 128
Galley, William, 69n
Carr, M. Robert: article by, quoted, 175
Chechens (people), 70
Chitose, Japan: military base, 19, 20, 107
Cholera, 65-66
Chuguyevka, USSR, 8, 95
base near, 9-12,96-98, 100-106, 218
Cockroaches, Belenko’s fascination with, 26
Collective farms, 25, 26, 27, 51-52, 72, 87-88
Combat simulator: United States, 182-183
Communist Party: teachings of, 28, 56
United States, 66
Communist Weekend, 10, 13
Concentration camps: near Rubtsovsk, USSR, 28
