Death of a Giant

[Mortblanc]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25497013

[CharlesHarris]

I met Kalishnikov at a dinner hosted for him by the curator of military history at the Smithsonian Institution. He was a guest of the Smithsonian and the US State Dept. and I was among the group of invited guests from the museum, firearms industry, diplomatic community and military.

He was a modest and personable man, an honorable old soldier who loved his country, and respectfully toasted Allied dead who helped defeat Hitler and therefore saved Russia. He had a wonderful sense of humor, enjoying the Texas style barbeque put on in his honor at a military base just outside Washington, remarking how much better the beef was than the last American meat he had eaten, SPAM! in 1945...