Crowded Decks

Like a mountain village in the path of a gathering avalanche, the world helplessly awaited the approach of one of the least promising international conclaves in history. In all probability, the results would show that seldom have so many traveled so far for so little in terms of progress achieved.

But as the Baltika steamed ever closer to its East River dock with Nikita Khrushchev and his satellite claque, the prospect of the greatest diplomatic spectacle ever proved almost irresistible. Already, 26 heads of government, either in name or fact, were publicly committed to attend this week's U.N. General Assembly meeting. And when Washington announced that President Eisenhower planned to speak to the Assembly (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS), other heads of state began to get itchy feet. India's Jawaharlal Nehru, who had originally been minded to stay away, now seemed likely to come. So did Tunisia's President Habib Bourguiba. Even Britain's Harold Macmillan was aching to come--despite advice to the contrary from his own Foreign Office. And if Macmillan showed up in New York, so would Canada's Prime Minister John Diefenbaker. Only Charles de Gaulle, who dislikes what he refers to as the "socalled United Nations,'' seemed totally immune to temptation.

Playing Blocs. The fact that so many heads of government wanted to get in on the act following Khrushchev's original lead was by no means a sign that he could count on their support at the U.N. The only General Assembly votes Khrushchev could be utterly sure of were those of the Soviet satellites (see box), plus that of Cuba's ineffable Fidel Castro--who was put into his proper slot by a State Department decision to restrict him to Manhattan Island along with Khrushchev, Hungary's Janos Kadar and Albania's Mehmet Shehu.

Some of the visitors, in fact, were coming with the express purpose of countering Khrushchev's gambit. Yugoslavia's Marshal Tito boarded the Queen Elizabeth for New York only after he and his fellow neutralist, President Nasser of Egypt, had jointly decided that the U.N. meeting offered an opportunity to promote their dream of a worldwide bloc of nations uncommitted to either East or West. Others were coming out of national pride: for the leaders of nine new African nations* of the French community, the lure was a chance to preside at their countries' U.N. debut--and, judging from hints out of Washington, to meet Dwight Eisenhower. Ghana's U.S.-educated President Kwame Nkrumah was coming to advance his own claims to leadership of all the Africans.

Targets of Opportunity. In capitals throughout the West, Soviet diplomats and sympathizers carefully dropped hints that Nikita planned all sorts of diplomatic spectaculars ranging from a call for "complete, universal and immediate" disarmament down to a proposal for the elimination of all means of delivering nuclear warheads--an idea that is espoused by France's Charles de Gaulle and which, therefore, Khrushchev might invoke in hopes of dividing the Western allies.

Behind all the Soviet muscle flexing and the Western counterplanning lay a common awareness that at the General Assembly Khrushchev, either as wrecker or as propagandist, will be presented with a dazzling variety of targets of opportunity. Among the predictable targets:

Disarmament--almost a must, but if this is all Khrushchev has to talk about, it will be a sign that he hasn't much fresh to offer. It was he who broke up the last disarmament session.

U.S. "Aggressiveness"--the assembled heads of state will certainly be treated to a thorough discussion of the U2, the RB-47 and NSA's code breaking. With help from Cuba's Fidel Castro, the specter of "Yanqui imperialism" will be raised for the consideration of Latin American nations.

Berlin--talked about, perhaps, but no major action, unless Khrushchev really is ready for big trouble.

The Congo--Khrushchev, all out to win the support of struggling new nations, will indicate that he can help them more against the colonialists than anybody, including Red China's Mao Tse-tung.

U.N. Membership for Red China--piously proposed but not pushed, letting all observe that Mao Tse-tung is still not admitted into the world's top circles.

Sour Note. But Khrushchev is not arriving in New York in the triumph he may have anticipated. Even as he prepared to land at Manhattan's Pier 73, his Communist "technicians" were being ordered out of the Congo, the country which Moscow had hoped to convert into its first African satellite. And in the U.N., Russia's massive drive to discredit Dag Hammarskjold over the Congo was likely to make the atmosphere inside the air-conditioned U.N. building as cool as the U.S. territory outside.

* Gabon, Chad, Ivory Coast, Upper Volta, Dahomey, Malagasy Republic, Congo Republic, Central African Republic, and Niger.

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