On with the Showdown

It was a quiet afternoon at Checkpoint Charlie in West Berlin when suddenly a convoy of official cars raced up to the Wall from the Communist sector of the city. Out swarmed dozens of Russian security men around a familiar portly figure decked out in a black astrakhan cap and grey overcoat. It was Nikita Khrushchev all right, and he promptly proceeded to give one of his impromptu theatrical performances. Grinning broadly, he mugged for photographers, gaily waved a pudgy finger at the barbed wire and steel barrier, then ambled over for a chat with a busload of astonished Italian newsmen. Asking for "someone who speaks English" he jovially pumped the hand of the correspondents' guide, a U.S. Air Force colonel, exclaimed, "I wish you all the best in life."

No Urgency. Whether or not most of the world was dismayed by the ugly Wall that divides Berlin, Nikita was clearly delighted with what he saw. Only the day before, in fact, he had sung the Wall's praises in his 2 1/2-hour speech to the big East German Communist Party Congress in East Berlin's Werner Seelenbinder Hall.

"At first glance, it may appear as if nothing has changed during the last four years," he pouted to the 2,500 Communist delegates. "Some people think we haven't attained anything."

It was all leading up to another postponement of his dire Berlin threats. The "success" of the Wall in sealing the borders of the Soviet zone, declared Khrushchev, no longer made "the conclusion of a peace treaty the same problem as it was before Aug. 13." Everyone applauded enthusiastically--everyone, that is, except the little man in a grey-blue uniform who sat impassively among the delegates to the left of the rostrum. He was Wu Hsiu-chuan, Red China's delegate sent by Peking to register quiet disdain at Khrushchev's conduct in the latest chapter in the Sino-Soviet split.*

Khrushchev did not so much as glance at Wu when, gesticulating, he demanded that the Red Chinese cool their "red-hot tempers," cease sneering at Moscow for its policy of coexistence with the West. Again he repeated his warning that the "imperialists" are no "paper tigers." The U.S., Nikita informed his gasping audience, has 40,000 atomic or nuclear warheads./- This, he cried, is more than enough. "During the first blow, 700-800 million people would die," cried the Russian Premier. "Dear Comrades, I'll tell you a secret. Our scientists have developed a 100-megaton bomb. If we were to drop it on France or West Germany, it would destroy you too. An empire on earth is preferable to a kingdom in heaven."

Angry Outburst. When Wu at last got the floor to reply to Moscow's old master, no one, alas, wanted to listen. At Wu's first snide crack at Moscow for backing revisionist Yugoslavia (whose delegates were attending an Iron Curtain Red congress for the first time since 1948), the place exploded with catcalls, whistles and the rattle of stamping feet. "Differences are hard to avoid," Wu yelled above the din, but this sally only brought gales of sarcastic laughter. Finally, after 30 minutes of chaos, the man from Peking retreated to his seat. Needless to say, no one clapped. Nikita Khrushchev was deliberately spared the clamor of the occasion. Delivering his own quiet snub to Red China, he had gone off to inspect an East Berlin television factory before Wu's speech even began.

* The same Communist troubleshooter who turned up at recent Communist Party congresses in Sofia, Budapest and Prague to raise Red China's lonely voice against the crowd. In 1950, Wu led the Peking delegation to the United Nations and, in a speech studded with memorable invective, stonily rejected the cease-fire plan for Korea.

/- Probably a low figure. A recent study by the Institute for Defense Analyses (composed of experts from ten leading U.S. universities who advise various Government agencies) estimated that the number of U.S. nuclear weapons, ranging from tactical atomic artillery such as Honest John to nuclear warheads for missiles and bombs, was at least 50,000. Estimated Soviet nuclear-bomb inventory: about 5,000.

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