Khrushchev May Not Find

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29004, 19 September 1959, Page 13

Khrushchev May Not Find

U.S. He Expected

[Specially written for the N.Z.P.A. by HARRISON E. SALISBURY, a former Moscow correspondent of the "Neu> York Times”) NEW YORK, September 17. What pattern of Soviet-American relations will emerge from the visit of Mr Khrushchev and the return journey of President Eisenhower cannot be predicted; there are too many unknown factors.

It will be the first time, for instance, that Mr Khrushchev has had a chance to evaluate for himself the strengths and weaknesses of the United States. He will be'seeing in action for the first time the American free enterprise system with its endless diversity, productivity and creativity. For the first time he will be able to weigh the reality of United States capitalism against the caricatures of the Marxist classics. Nothing would be less realistic than to suppose that the impact ot what Mr Khrushchev sees xn the United States would cause him to lose faith tn the Communist doctrine. But it would be equally unreasonable to suppose that Mr'Khrushchev’s views, conclusions and policies would hot be modified ip »« bt ot American like all Soviet teStoto of bis. generation, has Lj.ii uiaartid tfiir United States S*gh the eyes of “Pravda.” tbe Cofimuntet party paper, or of I■.wtatot’ ',-vtot to

will Mr Khrushchev himself be in a position to understand what it would really mean to live in a two-Power world shared by the Soviet Union and the United States. Mr Khrushchev arrived In the United States with certain welldefined concepts about future relations between the two countries, He has said on many occasions that what he would like is a two-Power world, directed by the United States and the Soviet Union. He has talked in these terms with Adlai S. Stevenson, Hubert H. Humphrey, W Averell Harriman and Richard M Nixon. He undoubtedly will talk m similar terms with President Eisenhower. If the big two agree, Mr Khrushchev contends, the peace of the world can be assured No-one would challenge their combined strength. There is no doubt that Mr Khrushchev wants to end the cold war. He often talks of the good that will flow from bringing the am* race to an end. He notes thebuge tax burden in the United IStatee and the handicap that arms j production place* on hi* plans to Improve foe life at the Soviet ■ He make* no secret of his Mallons with fiw touted Itete* win enable him W attention to hgWUrptoataß*. He is well

But Mr Khrushchev’s evaluation of the productive vitality of the capitalist system is rooted in ancient pictures—his boyhood experience in the Donets Basin coal mines and in Marxian descriptions of mid-nineteenth-cen-tury England.

His trip to the United States will require him to rethink a number of basic assumptions regarding the comparative vitality of the two systems. The new ideas and new impressions to which Mr Khrushchev is exposed in his journey of exploration may stimulate his creative mind to new paths of thought.' It has long been evident that in two great areas of conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union differences have been narrowing imperceptibly Given a will toward agreement, the Soviet and United States positions on disarmament and atomic controls would prove more similar than is generally supposed.

The German question is more complex, although Mr Khrushchev insists that no-one really wants German reunification. This leaves the Berlin question as the great enigma. There are diplomats who contend that Mr Khrushchev will never compromise on Berlin But all things are relative. If Mr Khrushchev coula reduce the pace of the arms race, if he could free the Soviet economy from its arms burden to give the Russian people a more abundant life, if he could take the first steps toward laying the foundations of a two-power world, he might find more elasticity in the Soviet negotiating position than the West has assumed. Mr Khrushchev and his principal aides are placing great emphasis on the desirability of large-scale trade between the United States and the Soviet Union. Mr Khrushchev realises that the most real path toward bringing the Soviet living standard up to that -of the United States level is to enlist the aid of tfie American industrial system Mr Khrushchev may not find the America he expected. But he may' well And a nation whose collaboration and coMMmMfoo could be more valuable Soviet Union, than the 1 to *ll other nations put