International: Echo of Olden Days

The idea of U.S. atomic superiority, Russia’s Andrei Vishinsky told the U.N. last week, “is a mere fairy tale … an echo of the olden days of 1946 and 1947. The Soviet Union does have the atomic bomb and does have the hydrogen bomb .. . . The Soviet Union is not behind other countries in this respect, other countries which, I may add, perhaps may not have all the armaments of this type which the Soviet Union has.” Was Vishinsky bragging emptily? Washington correspondents, after taking a few soundings among the close-mouthed U.S. atomic experts, concluded: “If he is not precisely correct, he is considered . . . nearly so here.”