Word to the Home Folks

"I would very much like you to be good, active and objective companions, for it depends on you correspondents, to a large extent, to provide the people with truthful information about our stay in the United States."

So Nikita Khrushchev last week admonished the U.S. press. For the most part, he got the accurate and objective treatment he demanded--which was more than could be said for the Soviet handling of the Khrushchev trip. Indeed, although every leading newspaper in all 15 Soviet republics turned over its front pages to the journey, there was not, for Russian readers, much Izvestia (information), and scarcely any Pravda (truth).

Beamed Sovietskaya Rossia (Soviet Russia): "One had to see the smiles on the faces of the Americans lining the route, hear their joyous cheers and applause, watch how from the rooftops and windows hundreds upon hundreds of people waved to the head of the Soviet government to realize with what gladness, warmth and cordiality the inhabitants of the American capital welcomed Khrushchev. Indeed, the expectations of some that the welcome would be reserved--even cold--collapsed like a soap bubble."

"Wretched Clumps." That same note persisted all week in an anvil chorus so harmonious that Russian readers, if they took the trouble, could find identical sentences and even paragraphs in the dispatches of the 30-odd Soviet newsmen assigned to the tour. The coolness of U.S. crowds was not mentioned for three days, and then only in passing. "Wretched clumps of fascistic elements," scoffed Izvestia, "were lost in the sea of Americans who welcomed the Soviet guests with good will and hospitality."

But the chill was generally dismissed as trivial. "Under the influence of public opinion," wrote Vladimir Orlov in Soviet Culture, "even those papers which published material unfavorable to Khrushchev's mission today have ceased publication of such articles. The papers write with great warmth about Khrushchev, mentioning his statesmanlike wisdom and great personal charm. This is indeed a far cry from the familiar picture of the yellow capitalist press."

Anything not contributing to the portrait of a triumphant one-man parade through the U.S. was either doctored or ignored. Of the ten questions Khrushchev fielded from reporters after his speech at Washington's National Press Club, only one was not translated--the one that nettled him most. Cabled Tass obliquely: "The first question was connected with the personality cult of Stalin and was of an obviously provocative nature."

"Fervent Champion." Khrushchev's angry response ("malicious rumors and lies") to that provocative question was considerably softened in transit: "I should like to ask those who thought up this question: What aims did they set themselves and what did they want when they were cooking it up? . . . I will not fall for provocation and I am not going to reply by unfriendly sallies against the many worthy representatives of the press."

By the end of the week the Soviet press had fleshed out the image they sought: of an America that gave its heart to the world's No. 1 peddler. "Nikita S. Khrushchev," said Moscow's Literary Gazette, "is the constant, fearless, fervent champion of peace. Now all the common people of the world know it. This includes the citizens of the U.S."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.