12
That evening, at the seven new mess halls that had been built for the American crews, the air base commander General Perminov had arranged a joint dinner, which soon turned into a lively party. The Soviet hosts had laid the tables with a considerable amount of alcohol, while on their part the Americans treated their allies to whiskey, and a large number of women suddenly appeared in the hall. Needless to say, this meeting of countries soon lost any strict and formal character, and set protocol was replaced by lively flirting. The Americans were unaware that the Communist Party officials at the base had intentionally selected a group of females from the engineering and medical battalions according to their appearance and ideological qualities, and had instructed them on how to behave at
