Evening star., 1960-10-15
Mr.. K. Back Home

Now that he is back in Moscow after
rs days of personal pyrotechnics at the
United Nations in New York, Nikita
Khrushchev's real purpose in staging
this internationally unprecedented and
somewhat shocking show of his still
remains matter of speculation and
conjecture. Why such an outlandish
performance? Why the mixture of sweet
talk and bitter diatribeS, smiles and
snarlS, cajolery and threats, polite dip
lomatic circumlocutions and the crude,
blunt language of the gutter?
Certainly, if the Soviet Premier's in
tention has been to befuddle and intimi-
date the General Assembly into bowling
to his demand for basic constitutional
changes in the U. N, he has failed miser-
ably. For the ASSembly'S overwhelming
majority, far from being bulldozed by his
growlS and his oStentatiouS table
humping (not to mention the brand
yishing of his Shoe) has made clear that
it Nlrns thumbs down on his virulent
attitude toward Dag Hammarskjold, and
that it wants no part of the Russian
plan to replace the Secretary Generals
office with Soviet-neutralist-W Western
triumvirate that could serve only to i'm
mobilize or paralyze the world organiza-
ton in moments of crisis when speed
of decision and action is vital.
Similarly, If he has hoped that his
antics (those Of genial clown one min
ute and menacing, rocket-wielding
dictator the next) would chill the spine
of the U. N. and make the Assembly
surrender to Soviet terms on the great
issues of the hour, Mr.. Khrushchev must
feel deep sense OF disappointment and
Illustration. Thus, to mention but a few
of the rebuffs inflicted on him, he has
suffered a 70-to-0 defeat as far as the
Congo is concerned; and his espouSal
of Red China'S admission (possibly an
insincere espouSal) has once again been
voted down; and he has taken thor
ough beating in his attempt to block
another full discussion of the Kremlin's
crime against Hungary and Peiping's
genocide in Tibet. Further, and perhaps
more important still, his effort to tar
the United States with the brush of
aggression has been shatteringly repudi-
ated by the great majority, with only the
Communist bloc (plus Cuba) supporting
him.
Indeed, as he reports now to his
colleagues in the Krenlin, Mr.. Khru-
shchev has, but one clear-cut victory"
to cite as justification for his eXtraordi-
nary and fully disgusting conduct in
the U. NJ This victory" is the Assem-
bly'S decision, without objection from
any quarter, to discuss in plenary session
the Soviet declaration calling for an
immediate" end to "colonialism" every
where. The declaration, of course, is an
essentially dishonest piece of propa-
ganda designed to win friends and in
fluence people in the new African states.
The Western powers, however should
be able to handle it very effectively in
the Assembly, especially so in the sense
Of pointing a scornful, accusing finger
at the Kremlin's Imperialism, which has
swallowed up nearly dozen once-inde-
pendent lands since the 1940s.
All things considered, therefore, it
would seem that Mr.. Khrushchev has
little reason to feel elated by the results
of his show in New York. But he is an
intelligent man full of a great deal of
international savvy, and he apparently
is confident that his self -burlesquing
shenanigans in the Assembly have been
worthwhile. Conceivably they have been,
but we shall have to wait for events
themselves to show us whether or not
that is really the fact of the matter.