"This Is My Answer"

The Vice President of the U.S. sat down gravely in a straight-backed, upholstered chair in a Moscow television studio one night last week. He placed a manuscript on the oval table before him, and on signal, began to read to a Soviet Union television and radio audience of millions the most remarkable speech they had ever heard from a foreigner.

Back from his swing through the Urals and Siberia, Nixon had gone into seclusion at the U.S. embassy for two days to draft the speech for what he saw as an unprecedented opportunity to speak plainly about Soviet-American relations. He sweated his first draft of 5,000 words down to 2,000 to fit into half an hour, with another 30 minutes' time for translation. At his side as he spoke was his own interpreter, the U.S. State Department's Alexander Akalovsky, charged with translating in the most effective way possible--thought by thought, but never more than a paragraph at a time--into Russian.

The speech packed dynamite, but Nixon handled it with care--so much care that the official government newspaper, Izvestia, printed the full text. Along the way, with delicate handling, he:

P: Implied strongly that the Russians are being kept in ignorance of the facts about U.S. aims and proposals for peace.

P: Flatly accused Pravda of concocting a story that Nixon tried to maneuver a Soviet citizen into accepting money for propaganda purposes.

P: Rejected the Communists' favorite "peaceful coexistence'' theme as lead'ng to "two hostile camps," and offered in its place "one world," with freedom to choose economic and political systems.

P: Put the onus for suspicion, tension and the U.S. arms buildup on the U.S.S.R., for its attempts to export Communism. Nixon told the Soviet people that they work one day out of every four to produce armaments.

P: Warned Khrushchev by name that he could choose between trying to make a better life for the Russian people or, by trying to export Communism, lead them into a world of fear and suspicion.

Obsessive Questions. Nixon started off pleasantly by ad-libbing an apology for pre-empting the time of a popular humor program, went on to tell his listeners about his "impressions of this country and its people." He praised the "beauty and culture of Leningrad," the "inspiring pioneer spirit of Novosibirsk," the "magnificent ballets," the "drive for progress." He had been struck, he said, by the Soviet people's "capacity for hard work, their vitality, their intense desire to improve their lot."

"Above all," he went on, "the American people and the Soviet people are as one in their desire for peace. And our desire for peace is not because either of us is weak. On the contrary, each of us is strong and respects the strength the other possesses. This means that if we are to have peace, it must be a just peace, based on mutual respect rather than the peace of surrender or dictation by either side."

Nixon gave hard answers to some obsessive Soviet questions that he had met with during his visit.

Why does the U.S. maintain military bases around the Soviet borders? "These bases are not maintained for purposes of attacking you, but for purposes of defending ourselves and our allies."

Why does the U.S. think it was necessary to set up bases? "Let us look at the record. We disarmed rapidly after World War II. And then came a series of events that threatened our friends abroad as well as ourselves. The Berlin blockade and the war in Korea are typical of the actions that led the U.S. and our allies to rearm so that we could defend ourselves against aggression." Deliberately sidestepping any direct charge of aggression against Khrushchev & Co., Nixon pointed out that the Berlin blockade and the Korean war took place before the 2Oth Party Congress in Moscow in February 1956 "changed the line to the one that Mr. Khrushchev enunciated again in his speech [last week at Dnepropetrovsk], that Communism will now try to achieve its international objectives by peaceful means rather than by force."

Why doesn't the U.S. get rid of the bases, since the Soviet government declares today that it has only peaceful intentions? "The answer is that whenever the fear and suspicion that caused us and our allies to take measures for collective self-defense are removed, the reason for the bases will be removed. The only possible solution lies in mutual action leading toward disarmament."

Steps Toward Peace. "I realize," said Nixon, "that there are some very basic differences between us." To help settle those differences peacefully, he suggested "some practical steps that will contribute to the cause of peace." Among them 1) cut down the language barrier ("I was amazed at the number of people I met on this trip who were studying English"), 2) set up "a much freer exchange of information between our two countries, so that misconceptions we may have about you and that you have about us may be removed." Since at least 100 of Premier Khrushchev's words are printed in the U.S. press for every one of President Eisenhower's words printed in the Soviet press, "let us agree that all of Mr. Khrushchev's speeches on foreign policy be printed in the U.S. and that all of President Eisenhower's speeches on foreign policy be printed in the Soviet Union.

"Why not go farther and set up regular radio and television broadcasts by Mr. Khrushchev to the American people, in return for President Eisenhower's having the same privilege to talk to the Soviet people? . . .

"Let us put a stop to the jamming of broadcasts, so that the Soviet people may hear broadcasts from our country just as the American people can hear broadcasts from the Soviet Union. Let us have a freer flow of newspapers and magazines." Along with open skies, "the world also needs open cities, open minds and open hearts."

Right to Choose. Nixon wound up with his counsel for Nikita Khrushchev, the sharpest ever publicly uttered in the Soviet Union. After praising Khrushchev as a "born leader of men," Nixon noted that hundreds of times in the U.S.S.R. he had seen signs reading, LET us WORK FOR THE VICTORY OF COMMUNISM.

If Premier Khrushchev takes this slogan to mean "working for a better life for the people within the Soviet Union, that is one thing. If on the other hand he means the victory of Communism over the U.S. and other countries, this is a horse of a different color. For we have our own ideas as to what system is best for us.

"If he devotes his immense energies and talents to building a better life for the people of his own country. Mr. Khrushchev can go down in history as one of the greatest leaders the Soviet people have ever produced. But if he diverts the resources and talents of his people to the objective of promoting the communization of countries outside the Soviet Union, he will only assure that both he and his people will continue to live in an era of fear, suspicion and tension.

"Mr. Khrushchev predicted that our grandchildren in the U.S. would live under Communism, and he reiterated this to me in our talks.

"Let me say that we do not object to his saying this will happen. We only object if he tries to bring it about.

"And this is my answer to him. We do not say that your grandchildren will live under capitalism. We prefer our system. But the very essence of our belief is that we do not and that we will not try to impose our system on anybody else. We believe that you and all other peoples on this earth should have the right to choose the kind of economic or political system that best fits your particular problems, and to do that without any foreign intervention."

*Front row: Mrs. Mikoyan, Mrs. Kozlov, Mrs. Nixon, Mrs. Khrushchev. Second row: Khrushchev, Nixon, First Deputy Premier Anastas Mikoyan, Milton Eisenhower. Others include Kozlov (between Khrushchev and Nixon), Minister of Culture Georgy Zhukov, and U.S. Ambassador Llewellyn Thompson (between Mikoyan and Eisenhower).

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