Kissing Mood

Nikita Khrushchev bounced back into Moscow like a man who felt he had carried off all the marbles. "That tireless herald of friendship and cooperation among nations," as Pravda called him, had not been so gay since he gave up heavy drinking. Flying direct from Vienna, he arrived just in time to greet Indonesia's wide-roaming President Sukarno, whom he presented with a car and a six-foot bronze statue of a Soviet sportswoman. Next night Khrushchev brought all the top Soviet brass to Sukarno's 60th birthday party, held on the lawn of the Indonesian embassy.

As a band struck up a Caucasian lezghinka, Khrushchev shoved Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev toward First Deputy Premier Anastas Mikoyan. "Dance, you two," he said. Rising to the occasion, Brezhnev whipped out a white handkerchief, clapped it over his head and swayed through the girl's part with Mikoyan. Pointing to Mikoyan, Khrushchev quipped: "He's a good dancer and that's why we keep him on the job."

Then a second band broke into a number that goes, "Indonesia is free--cha cha cha." Sukarno grabbed Nina Khrushchev for a partner. Nikita leaped up himself, waggled through a few steps, took a bongo drum and thumped it for a while. Then he seized Sukarno's silverheaded marshal's baton and began leading the band. Sukarno said he would expect some new Soviet credits in return.

"Look!" howled Khrushchev, pulling out empty pockets. "He robs me of everything. He takes everything I have."

The climax of the evening came in true Sukarno style. A flock of pretty Indonesian girls he had brought with him to Moscow in his chartered U.S. jet rushed up and kissed the top Soviet leaders. Sukarno then demanded to be kissed in return by a Russian girl. Resourcefully, Nina Khrushchev walked into the crowd of lower-ranking guests and spied a pretty girl. "Are you Russian?" she asked. "Yes." said the girl. "Then come and kiss President Sukarno," commanded Nina. The girl said no, she did not want to. Her husband said he did not want her to. But Nina was not to be denied. "Oh, please come," she said. "You only have to kiss him once, not twice."

Reluctantly, the girl came forward and got soundly kissed. Khrushchev thanked her for "upholding Russian honor," and with that he left the party, an hour behind schedule and apparently without a care in the world.

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