Who's at the Button?

The man at Russia's nuclear pushbutton, if Khrushchev's tirades last week (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS) were to be believed, is a trimly athletic, strikingly handsome career artillery officer--and a Khrushchev favorite. Marshal of Rocketry Mitrofan Nedelin, said Khrushchev, is "a remarkable soldier, a hero of the Soviet Union, a splendid artilleryman who knows more about rocketry than anybody."

Nedelin, 57, was virtually unknown in the West--except to other general staffs--until a month ago, when Khrushchev, in an offhand remark at the Czech embassy, revealed that the marshal had been given command of Russia's brand new rocket force. A member of a favored branch (Stalin once called artillery "the God of war"), Nedelin became adept in World War II at Stalin's vaunted "artillery offensives," massing 300 pieces or more for each kilometer of front. His rise to favor with Nikita apparently began when both men were serving in the Ukraine during the war.

But did Khrushchev really intend to give a man who once described himself as "a gunner, that's all" the authority to make the decision that could touch off nuclear war? The consensus of the West: Nikita was trading on U.S. cancellation of the U-2 flights to run a bluff on which he reckoned he would never have to put up or shut up.

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