Nov. 16, 1960: Paul Coates files the first story in his series on the Soviet Union. He writes from Moscow: “This is the other side of the moon. A place so strange to western eyes that it defeats my most determined attempts at accurate description.”   Fifty years later, it may be hard to understand how unusual Coates’ trip was. In the early 1960s, the Soviet Union was viewed as mysterious, secretive and very dangerous to the free world. It’s not quite like having tea with Osama bin Laden, but almost.