The most unexpected conclusion of the cold war in 1989, followed two years later by the even more unexpected collapse of the Soviet Union, appeared to some at least to represents a clear victory for the United States. Building a partnership with Moscow was thus regarded as a necessity, and after 1992 the US made great play of its new-found friendship with Russia and the Russian President, Boris Yeltsin. The first and least significant was to expose American rhetoric for what it was; so much hot air without little connection with Russian realities and needs. Strobe Talbott worked for many years as writer and then editor-at-large for the American news magazine, Time. Zbigniew Brzezinski was born in Poland in 1928, but moved to the US and became an American citizen in 1958. Confronted with the crisis, US officials charged with Russian policy clearly had an uphill task in front of them.