 In 1967 , just before the outbreak of the Six @-@ Day War , Podgorny delivered an intelligence report to Egyptian Vice President Anwar Sadat which claimed , falsely , that Israeli troops were massing along the Syrian border . That same year , he engaged in a dialogue with Pope Paul VI as part of the pontiff 's <unk> ; the result was greater openness for the Roman Catholic Church in Eastern Europe . In 1971 Podgorny went on two state visits , the first to the People 's Republic of China ( PRC ) and the second to North Vietnam ; Kosygin went on a visit to Canada while Brezhnev visited Yugoslavia . Podgorny frequently paid visits to North Vietnam during the Vietnam War to discuss Soviet @-@ Vietnamese foreign relations . In 1973 , Podgorny visited Finland and Mohammed Daoud Khan 's Afghanistan . 
