In-Laws & Outlaws

Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia, Communism's prodigal son, was welcomed back into the fold last week. There he stood, alongside Nikita Khrushchev himself, beaming with pleasure on the rostrum of the Kremlin's Great Hall from which he had been cursed for the past 14 years. When the first applause of greeting died down, ex-Heretic Tito told Russia's comrades what they wanted to hear: "Our views are identical or very close together" on cold war issues. "Certain differences remain." he admitted, but "we shall do away with them through constructive cooperation."

Nikita Khrushchev, beaming with pride at having patched up one of Communism's family squabbles, could now take another swat at that other bickering Red relative--Communist China. There are those, cried Nikita, who, "like a Buddha," tell Moscow how to run its affairs. This, he added scornfully, reminded him of the story of the frog who wanted to be as big as a bull. "Everyone knows what happened: the frog burst, and all that was left was a puddle."* As for Peking's charges that the Russians are "soft" on capitalism, Nikita asked archly if Red China's withdrawal of its troops in the Himalayas was not "a concession on the part of the Chinese comrades." Those "loudmouthed revolutionaries" who call imperialism a "paper tiger," warned Khrushchev, should remember that "the paper tiger has nuclear teeth. It may still use them, and should not be treated lightly."

*From the same Aesop fable that U.S. children--read, rewritten and popularized in Russia by Ivan Krylov (1769-1844).

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