RUSSIA: Shooting Match

Cocktail-party diplomacy was not the bouncing Russian strongman’s only propaganda weapon last week (see box). Two days later Nikita Khrushchev laid about him again in an interview (conducted without the aid of interpreters) with the U.P.’s veteran Moscow Correspondent

Henry Shapiro. Nikita’s wildest thrusts:

“Our ballistic missiles cannot be stopped. They can reach a target within any small area. Our rockets can dispose of bases in Europe, Asia and Africa. The first rocket we ever launched hit the bull’s-eye.

“Our submarines can block American ports and shoot into the American interior. America’s vital centers are just as vulnerable as NATO bases.”

If the U.S. doubts Soviet rocket claims, “let’s have a peaceful rocket contest just like a rifle-shooting match, and they’ll see for themselves.”

Never had Nikita bragged so extravagantly, and never had the world been less sure, under the spinning Sputniks, that most of what he said was just bragging.