When will Bill Clinton release the transcripts from his visit to the Soviet Union 1969

Clinton supporters red-baiting forgetting Bush Sr. tried to red-bait Bill in 1992

Bill Clinton was one of thousands of students, wealthy retirees and other American sightseers who poured into the Soviet Union in 1969 as entry barriers were easing dramatically, those associated with the country said Thursday after President Bush made Clinton's trip a campaign issue.

"What does the President imply . . . that anybody who as a student traveled to Russia is unpatriotic? What hogwash. I thought education was learning about the world first-hand as well as from books."

A congressional aide recalled that during the 1960s the CIA was secretly subsidizing the U.S. National Student Assn. for purposes of sending Americans to youth festivals in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.


"The idea was to send 'good' Americans who would prevent the Communists from dominating this kind of activity," the official recalled. "The student association was forced to fold when this was disclosed. So there was nothing intrinsically wrong about Clinton taking a trip to Moscow on his own."

Travel author Frank W. Rounds Jr. said in a magazine interview at the time that: "The Russian government is putting on the most massive tourist drive imaginable. . . . In 1968, there were 23,000 American visitors to Russia. In the first 10 months of 1969, the total was 40,000 Americans."