Point of view...

 I grew up in a small country controlled by the Soviets. Nobody could travel abroad, especially in the West. One friend was sent by his office to Paris and when he came back I asked him what he did see. " I could see the statutes not only from the front, as usually photographed,  but from the back also." This was freedom. capitalist freedom.  

Or maybe he was afraid to tell what he had seen,