[2] In his capacity as a Radio Moscow journalist and presenter of Moscow Mailbag, Adamov conducted interviews with many western politicians and journalists, including Dwight D. Eisenhower, Eleanor Roosevelt, Walter Cronkite and Larry King.

During the Cold War, Adamov's broadcasts, like all other Radio Moscow output, were carefully studied by Western governments, a fact of which the Soviet authorities were well aware.

Joe Adamov presented Moscow Mailbag from 1957 until shortly before his death, when ill-health forced him to relinquish the role permanently.

Joe Adamov was also the official Soviet translator at the trial of Gary Powers, shot down in a U-2 spy plane in 1960.

The signature poem of Moscow Mailbag was: You can't do better than send us that letter and in it tell Joe what you think of his show Adamov's death was reported on Voice of Russia's English-language news bulletins on December 21, 2005, although neither these bulletins nor the obituary on their website gave an exact date of death.