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On Nevsky Prospekt a young man saw that we were American, came up, and wanted to exchange money at the market rate (illegal). He was openly scornful of Communism and said that few of his friends believed in it. But he feared being drafted to Afghanistan.

Was he concerned about being followed? Beichman asked. No, the authorities would only be keeping an eye on us if we were White House big shots or, let's say, notorious anti-Communists. I didn't have the heart to tell him that Beichman was one of the most notorious in the United States. Arnold slipped him a few dollars and he was gone in a second.

A few months later, on another Moonie trip, this time to Korea, Japan, China, and the Philippines, Arnold was with us again. In Beijing, we had fierce disputes about the future of China. "China is a big nothing!" Arnold said. He was the leader of the once Leninist, always Leninist faction -- resolutely resisting any optimism about China's prospects.

When Alvin Rabushka of the Hoover Institution expressed a cautious dissent, we heard from Arnold right away.

"Women squatting on their haunches selling screws and junk. Junk! Junk of junk, that's sub-junk. Shmattas [rags]. They take big shmattas and they make little shmattas. From that you're going to get a consumer economy? C'mon, Alvin!"

"They didn't even sell screws and rags five years ago," Alvin replied.

"You're dreaming! Leninism is a theory of power. They cannot give up power." Later, as Arnold was getting into the bus, he said, almost to himself, "The trouble is, no one reads Lenin. They just hear about it."

Rabushka turned out to be closer to the truth, surely. Amazingly, China's ruling class retained power even while allowing capitalism to flourish, a feat comparable to driving through heavy traffic and changing clothes at the same time. But Arnold's updated thoughts on China is one thing I would love to ask him about now.

LITTLE HAS BEEN SAID or written about what may be the most interesting period of Arnold's life. From about 1950 to 1970 he went off on what can only be described as freelance adventures. "I found a way to have all the pleasures of being a foreign correspondent without anyone telling me what to cover," he told me. He never wanted "an executive job," but went to work first for the Musicians Union, then for the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU). They paid his expenses and a stipend. He would write articles and "Communist analysis" with foreign date-lines for various publications, especially the Christian Science Monitor.

"I got very interested in international trade unionism and the inroads the Communists were making into Africa and other countries as they were liberated from colonial rule." Arnold told me. Somehow, that became his entrée and passport. With Geneva as his stopover he would be introduced to people with connections. Who can follow what is really involved with "international trade unionism"? I never could.

He said, without my asking him: "I have never taken, that I can think of, a dime from the U.S. government." I believe that. But does it not seem possible that the ICFTU (founded in 1946) receives at least some government funds? George Meany was a friend and ally of Arnold's.

Beichman was in East Berlin in 1952, Stockholm in 1953, Algeria in 1957, South Vietnam in 1959, the Congo in 1960, and Ghana in 1971. He also became "the world's expert on Arab trade unions." (Who can dispute that!) The Christian Science Monitor published as a pamphlet his series of articles on unions in Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere.

Arnold was also in Yemen (when I don't know). He knew Tom Mboya, assassinated (probably) by allies of Jomo Kenyatta in Nairobi   in 1969. (President Obama has referred to Mboya as "my godfather.") Sir Roy Welensky of Northern Rhodesia was another of Arnold's allies, and a man after his own heart.

"Stalin had just died," Arnold said of his trip to Stockholm, "and that's where I met Bill Colby -- he was CIA although I didn't know it -- and I helped him out of a very bad scrape. It's a long story and I'll save it for another occasion." That occasion never arose --  my fault, not his reluctance to talk.

He was in Tunisia in 1957 and from there went to Algeria, having "arranged that in New York." The Algerian war was just beginning and Arnold was its first war correspondent. "That's a story in itself." Again, I never pursued it. He took along an excellent camera and his pictures were published in Newsweek. At that time he became good friends with Arnaud de Borchgrave.