"Brzezinski was seen as not only anti-Soviet, but a “Russophobe” as well. Dobrynin would recall how on the eve of the 1980 US presidential election (in which Jimmy Carter lost to Ronald Reagan), Brzezinski tried to convince him that Russians were prejudiced against him because he was Polish. “History provides us with abundant evidence of hostile relations between Russians and Poles,” he told Dobrynin, “and we still haven’t freed ourselves from this tragic past.”"