The End

From the moment Nikita Khrushchev got his invitation to the U.S. safely in his pocket, all the secret sessions, working teas, buzz and bustle of Geneva became a show without an audience. "There is no one left in the grandstands." sighed a Western diplomat sadly. For the time being at least, the three Western foreign ministers seemed to have no more standing as policymakers than Andrei Gromyko himself. Gromyko even refused to accept Secretary Herter's mild suggestion that the foreign ministers resume talking when the U.N. General Assembly opens next month.

In the end, as the conference came to an unlamented stop after 65 days, Gromyko did begrudgingly drop his insistence on a full list of agreements and disagreements, settled for a routine (the talks had been "frank and comprehensive"), face-saving ("The position of both sides on certain points became closer") communique of a spare 149 words. As their final assignment, the foreign ministers had the tricky job of getting out of .the boat without rocking it. At one point, they got stuck over the problem of whether the West and East Germans at Geneva should be described as "advisers who participated," as the West wanted, or "participants who advised," as Gromyko wanted. Typically, the ministers decided just to avoid any mention of the subject.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.