RFE/RL: Were you forced to hide your real beliefs?

Burkhard:
Yes, I'm pro-Western.

Whose poison do you want to drink? So much of what was said about the Soviet Union was completely false (and in my determination of this, I had only to rely on my own observations) that I don't "automatically" believe anything one side says about the other. I know that's not being "a good American" who believes American propaganda and distrusts Russian/Soviet propaganda, but that's the way I was raised.