To Ivan Kovanovich, U.S.S.R., dear Ivan, you don't know me, I don't know you, but I sure would liketo meet you. Yeah, I'd like to walk up to you and shake your hand and look you straight in the eyeand tell you that I haven't got a thing in this world against you. Now, I know that the heads ofour government seem to have some problems getting things together, but I got a feeling if I couldjust sit down and talk to you, and we could talk together, not as representatives of anybody'sgovernment, but just two.Plain, ordinary human beings. I feel like that we might have a great deal in common.I'm kind of in the entertainment business now, Ivan, but I used to be a farmer,just like you. I got a wife and three kids, and I don't know, this may sound a little unpatriotic,but to me, they're more important than the heads of anybody's government.A few years back, you and I both left the farm when we put on a uniform,and then we were on the same side of the fence, you and me, Ivan.And you know, I can't help but believe that we might still be on the same side of the fence,that we'd both like to see this old world unified in peace.I'll tell you something, Ivan, I love my land very, very much.Oh, we got some of the prettiest mountains and trees and rivers and valleys that you ever laid your eyes on.And I'm sure you feel the same way about your country, and I know that neither one of uswould want to see the faces of our countries blackened by the hot breath of anybody's bomb.Ivan, they tell methat over there that you don't believe in a God.But though I never met you, I cannot help but believe that a man who stood on a crisp fall morningand watched the sun rise over the farmland, and who planted a small grain of corn,and he's seen it grow out of the fertile soil, or better than that, Ivan, held his own baby in his arms,I know that you know that there's a God up there watching over each and every one of us.So, Ivan, when I'm putting my babies to bed tonight, I'm going to say a prayer for you and yours.And if you, in your own way, would say a prayer for me and mine,and maybe we could talk our neighbors into doing this.That would be more powerful than any conference ever held over any conference table in the whole wide world.And then maybe we can live, as God intended, peacefully together.Sincerely, Jimmy Dean, USA.