K und K

Under May skies that made the muddy Danube seem truly blue, Vienna last week relaxedly awaited its important visitors. Crowds strolled the Ringstrasse beneath the turrets and towers of the Rathaus, or climbed up into the Vienna Woods to down seidels of foaming beer with their Liptauer cheese and black bread. Children played in the Schoenbrunn gardens or stared solemnly at animals in the zoo; young lovers sat in the wine gardens of Grinzing, nibbling gingerbread and drinking young wine.

The most preoccupied men around were a pair of non-Austrians: U.S. Press Secretary Pierre Salinger and a 6-ft., muscular Russian general, Nikolai Zakharov, chief of Khrushchev's bodyguard. They huddled with each other and with Austrian officials, making program and security arrangements. Little trouble is expected from the thousands of Hungarian and other Iron Curtain refugees. Those who have not already migrated are contentedly working in unemployment-free Vienna. Reinforcements moved in for the Marine guard at the U.S. embassy. In deference to Austrian neutrality, they took off their blouses and military caps while traveling by car to their new post.

First to arrive this Friday will be Nikita Khrushchev and his plump, matronly wife Nina, aboard a special train from Moscow. After meeting Austrian officials and inspecting an honor guard, the Khrushchevs will motor to suburban Purkersdorf, where the Russian embassy maintains a comfortable villa. Next morning, by jet from France, President Kennedy and Jacqueline are scheduled to touch down on Vienna's Schwechat airfield. After exchanging amenities with Austria's President Adolf Schaerf, the Kennedy motorcade will wind through the heart of Vienna and to the U.S. embassy residence in suburban Heitzing, an iron-fenced villa surrounded by four acres of sloping lawn and hidden from casual sightseers by rhododendron.

At midday, Nikita Khrushchev will be Kennedy's luncheon guest, and the afternoon talk between the two leaders of East and West is expected to break up by 6 p.m. to allow them time to dress for the gala state dinner to be held in the imperial grandeur of Schoenbrunn Palace. On Sunday morning, the President is scheduled to attend Mass in St. Stephen's Cathedral, then drive to the Soviet embassy for five hours of talk--broken by lunch--with Khrushchev. This will give Jackie time to see the famous Lippizaner horses at the Spanish Riding School. At 5:15 p.m., they leave for London.

As the Viennese awaited their guests last week, they took a modest pride in the K. und K. emblems fastened to many of the city's landmarks. They seemed an appropriate gesture, even though the emblems stand not for Kennedy and Khrushchev but for Kaiserliche and Koenigliche (Imperial and Royal), and date from the already dim but recent past, when Vienna was the seat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

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