Khrushchev Flying To America

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29001, 16 September 1959, Page 15

Khrushchev Flying To America

DRAMATIC PRELUDES TO FIRST VISIT

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 11 p.m.) WASHINGTON, September 15. The Soviet Prime Minister, Mr Nikita Khrushchev, and President Eisenhower will begin world-ranging talks here today. Mr Khrushchev’s giant TUII4 jet airliner will land at Andrews Air Force base, 15 miles from Washington, at 1130 a.m. local time (330 pan. G.M.T.) after a non-stop flight from Moscow. The Soviet leader will step out for his first visit to the New World, to be greeted officially by the President as Head of State of the Soviet Union.

Mr Khrushchev has set the scene for his visit by a dramatic scientific and diplomatic offensive—Sunday’s moon rocket and last night’s call for an international conference to settle the Laos conflict.

Mr Eisenhower will confer for 90 minutes, with Mr Khrushchev at the White House in the afternoon. This, their first meeting since the Geneva “summit” conference in 1955, will be a business, not a social talk.

For the meeang Mr Eisenhower will have with him several advisers, including the VicePresident (Mr Nufcn), who visited Moscow in July; the Secretary of State (Mr Herter), and the United States Resident representative at the United Nations (Mr Henry Cabot Lodge). Mr Khrushchev will be assisted by the Soviet Foreign Minister (Mr Gromyko), the Soviet Ambassador in Washington (Mr Mikhail Menshikov), and the chief of the American Affairs Department in the Moscow Foreign Ministry (Mr A. A. Soldatov).

Diplomatic observers said that the two leaders would straight away plunge into their talks The President, who will visit Moscow later this year, regards these discussions as exchanges of views and not negotiations. Mr Eisenhower during the talks will call on Mr Khrushchev for the abandonment of the Communist purpose of world domination, according to informed diplomatic sources in Washington.

The President is said to be ready to use every diplomatic method he can to encourage such a change in Soviet policy. He is reported to believe that renunciation of the aim of world domination by the Soviet Union is necessary to fulfil his objective of “peace with justice.” The President’s main reason for inviting Mr Khrushchev to this country is to try to find a break in the Cold War. Mr Eisenhower has outlined quite clearly what he expects from Mr Khrushchev if there are to be further negotiations at a summit conference between Britain, France, the United States and the Soviet Union. He wants a guarantee that Western rights in Berlin will be respected, and a clear sign that a summit meeting would give real promise of reducing the causes of world tensions.

The President told Allied leaders during his recent, west European mission to Bonn, London and Paris, that if Mr Khrushchev produced new and constructive ideas he would consult them immediately. The observers expected the Eisenhower-Khrushchev world review to cover:

(1) East-West relations in general. (2) United Nations problems, particularly general disarmament under effective international control and inspection. [A 10-power body will meet in Geneva early next year to begin disarmament negotiations, which have been at a standstill since the summer of 1957. The new group is composed of Britain, France, the United States, Canada and Italy, and the Soviet Union. Czechoslovakia, Poland. Rumania and Bulgaria.] (3) A nuclear weapon tests ban. The President and Mr Khrushchev will be able to

analyse the work of the protracted three-Power (Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union) conference at Geneva for the discontinuance of tests. . (4) Berlin, German reunification and European security. The two leaders will discuss this in the light of the marathon Big Four Foreign Ministers’ conference which adjourned at Geneva on August 5. (5) The situation in Asia, especially the renewed fighting in the Kingdom of Laos between Royal Laotian troops and pro-Communist rebels. (6) World economic questions, and especially trade between the Soviet Union and the United States. While Mr Khrushchev is generally expected to ask the President to step up trade between the two countries, Mr Eisenhower may tell him to settle the Soviet Union’s lend-lease debt to the United States, which amounts to about 11,000 million dollars.

Mr Eisenhower met yesterday for 45 minutes in his office with the top United States diplomats

and Russian experts. The White House said they conferred on the United States viewpoints to be put to Mr Khrushchev.

Mr Eisenhower’s meeting today was with the Secretary of State (Mr Christian Herter) and the Secretary of the Treasury (Mr Robert Anderson). Joining in were Mr Herter’s top assistants, Mr Douglas Dillon, Mr Robert Murphy and Mr Livingston Merchant.

Also there were the State Department’s expert on European affairs, Mr Roy Kohler, who will make the entire trans-Continental tour with Mr Khrushchev, and the United States Ambassador to Moscow, Mr Llewellyn Thompson. Mr James Hagerty, the White House press secretary, said the conference “covered all aspects of the upcoming visit, not only procedural but also the topics to be discussed from our side.”

Mr Khrushchev will receive the full 21-gun, red-carpet reception at the airport, befitting the Head of State—as he has chosen to designate himself. Actually, he carries the titles of Head of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics, and First-Secretary of the Communist Party.