AHC: a Westerner wins Order of Lenin medal, and it's a positive for him or her?

I mean, they accept it in stride and aren't too embarrassed about it.

I think in one of the later Roger Moore Bond films, he was given the medal. This is fiction of course, and I think this was included as part of a wry joke that the Soviets benefited more from stealing from Silicon Valley than destroying it, but perhaps something like this could happen.

Or maybe Norm Borlaug, the scientist who helped to develop short stalk rice and was a major part of the Green Revolution.
 
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Check out the list of Order of Lenin recipients. Westerners who received the award include Armand Hammer and Hector Boyardee, two American businessmen.
 
There not be WW2 or after WW2 Soviet Union is much weaker than in OTL. Then anybody or very few would see the country being menace for the West.
 
I read Armand Hammer's autobiography some years ago. He went to Russia as a young man. In fact, his book was where I first heard about Lenin's New Economic Policy (NEP). At one point, Armand humorously commented that his own father was more of a doctrinaire communist than the father of communism Vladimir Lenin.

Armand got a consignment for a pencil factory. But when Stalin came to power, he saw the days for business consignments were numbered.

And I have not heard of that other fellow.
 
I think Chef Boyardee might be the above Hector Boyardee!

don't know much about his career, other than I loved his commercials as a kid :)
 
And as far as what might have happened,

some of the doctors, chemists, manufacturers involved in penicillin during WWII could have received the award, and most of them probably would have taken it in stride.

In that sense, the Order of Lenin might have become an alternate Nobel Prize.
 
no doubt heroics

If a westerner was in the right place, and saved a lot of lives, including Soviets,she might get one. For example, if someone attempted to bomb the Olympics, and an athlete (or other) clearly prevented the bombing, or saved many people from a natural disaster, it would be natural for an Order of Lenin to be awarded. Heck, perhaps she could get the Order of Lenin and the Congressional Medal of Freedom for the same act...there's some irony!
 

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Ironic maybe, but how about Richard Nixon for his work on Detente in the early 1970's? He had the anti-communist chops to pass any political litmus test at home and maintain credibility - at least till Watergate.
 
Hector Boyardee the Chef Boyardee won an award for his food rations from the Soviets in WW2 he couldn't acknowledge it during the Cold War.
 
Since its started pre WWII I think its easy you just need to award it before the cold war starts fully.

You could give it to any of the western allies senior commanders during or at at the end of the war and they would almost certainly accept it.
Say Churchill/Roosevelt/etc on D day or VE day ?

(the only problem might be that the higher Hero of the Soviet Union would be more likely to be used so maybe the lower order for other member of cabinet or the actual army commanders ?)
 
Maybe Dwight Eisenhower, along with British, French, Chinese, Australian, and a goodly number of other Allied commanders.

Now, it may have hurt Ike politically especially during his second term when Democrats were saying he was "weak" on defense, in my opinion because he was an older man and most of all because he was term-limited and on the way out because of the 22nd Amendment.
 
If a westerner was in the right place, and saved a lot of lives, including Soviets,she might get one. For example, if someone attempted to bomb the Olympics, and an athlete (or other) clearly prevented the bombing, or saved many people from a natural disaster, it would be natural for an Order of Lenin to be awarded. Heck, perhaps she could get the Order of Lenin and the Congressional Medal of Freedom for the same act...there's some irony!
Maybe Richard Jewell from the '96 Atlanta Olympics. And sure, the FBI had to follow the theory that he himself planted the bomb, but maybe just if they had been a little quicker and low-key about the investigation.

Richard is awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor.

He's informed that he will be offered the Order of Lenin medal.

President Clinton calls him and says, "Mr. Jewell, I'm going to write you a letter asking you to consider accepting the award. That way, if anyone gives you any grief, you can show them a letter from the President asking you to consider accepting. Now, the decision is yours. It's okay to accept the award. It's okay not to accept it."

He thinks it over and decides to accept it in the spirit in which it is offered.

Richard and his family fly to Moscow, and in a quiet, dignified ceremony, Mr. Richard Jewell receives the Order of Lenin award.

Now, was Russia still giving the award in '96 and '97? They could have been. For example, I pretty sure Russians still refer to WWII as the Great Patriotic War.
 
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