Guarding the VIPs:

...A police captain finally pinioned Zhakharov's arms to his body and told him to calm down...

...The 15th session of the General Assembly presented the most staggering security problem in history...

...Other militants were less cooperative, but the police had their own intelligence system to forewarn them of demonstrators...

...Moreover, sizable numbers of people were also eager to picket in behalf of the same visitors...

...A routine precaution was to make sure that a waiter never knew in advance what dish he would serve to any particular dignitary...

...Another police detective car followed, and thereafter a car with more of the VIP's own security men, another with State Department security men, another with six policemen who were experts in judo, and a final car containing six police sharpshooters...

...The police had the area well patrolled, with 110 uniformed men on duty in and around the hotel...

...Later, however, the Russians asked the police to keep all "mercy" visitors away...

...submarine and surrounded by a protective escort of Coast Guard and police launches...

...For further security, the sidewalk in front of the hotel was "frozen"—only pedestrians who had business in the area could enter...

...All commanding officers were on call 24 hours a day...

...A mobile reserve of 663 men, divided into four units, was also created...

...Never before had so complex a security plan been put into effect...

...So many VIPs were using the Waldorf Towers during the General Assembly session that at one point all four elevators were simultaneously "frozen" and the regular tenants were stranded on their floors...

...Meantime, at the headquarters of the Soviet UN mission at 680 Park Avenue, a riot was brewing...

...The route ran down Park Avenue to 57th Street, east to Second Avenue, south to 42nd Street and east to the UN...

...Police had not expected any trouble there until Khrushchev arrived the following day...

...At each of the residences where the threatened VIPs were staying, as well as at the UN and at Pier 73 where the Baltika tied up, the police stationed massive, round-the-clock details—each under the command of a superior officer...

...every vulnerable point in the vicinity was also protected, with uniformed police stationed on rooftops, in backyards and alleyways and on fire escapes...

...he flailed out wildly, striking two policemen in the process...

...There were ultimately 500 men at Castro's quarters, 350 at Khrushchev's...

...It had all been the idea of a Texas housewife, who had wanted to educate Khrushchev...

...BOSSI detectives regularly attended meetings of the various foreign political groups and would phone in reports of future demonstrations...

...Moreover, their charges were not coming as official guests of the U.S...

...Castro had hardly been installed, however, before several hundred shouting, excited Cuban demonstrators gathered in the area...

...Not only was a guard stationed in the motor room, but the elevator underwent a bomb search 30 minutes before the dignitary stepped aboard and was then "frozen" until he made his journey...

...this always caused a bit of an argument...

...In all, the New York Police Department listed 23 "security risks...

...Detectives mingled with the crowds behind the barriers and investigated the residents of all dwellings in the immediate area...

...And finally, in a category all his own, both as regards unpredictability and vulnerability, was Fidel Castro of Cuba...

...Both the State Department and city detectives worked with the VIPs' own security guards...

...Then came the VIP's car, which contained his personal bodyguards as well...

...boats were kept 500 feet away...

...Long in advance of the meal, BOSSI would be furnished with a list of all kitchen personnel and waiters which they checked against their own file of troublemakers...

...Close-in" protection of each VIP was the responsibility both of the State Department security men and of an elite group of New York detectives assigned to the Bureau of Special Services (ROSSI), whose job it is to protect visiting dignitaries...

...The judo experts and the sharpshooters were never needed...

...Police were stationed along it 24 hours a day, halting all traffic whenever a motorcade rolled...

...We were fairly certain that there was no danger in the immediate area," one police officer recalls, "but what we were really afraid of was someone with a high-powered rifle with a telescopic sight...

...Each time Khrushchev, for example, stepped out of his car, he was preceded by two to four security men, flanked by another two and closely followed by still another couple...

...They were provided with busses, ready to rush to the scene whenever any unexpected trouble threatened...

...These precautions were designed to thwart the individual assailant...

...Khrushchev brought some 15 men with him...

...The Russians promised two hours' notice of any movements, but often did not give more than 10 minutes...

...Unable to demonstrate in front of the hotel, both "pros" and "antis" then retreated to their automobiles and began racing up and down Lexington Avenue, honking their horns and screaming in Spanish at their opponents, at the hotel and at the police...

...They could dash about the city as the whim seized them...

...When the experts finally opened the parcel, they found an apple pie, together with a metal locket and chain and several other trinkets...

...The VIPs were the UN's concern while within its confines...

...A few hours later, when the police received word that Castro was heading for Harlem's Hotel Theresa, it was bussed up there...

...At each location there was a "frozen" area which provided safe access to the building...

...Both sides later exchanged protests, but the incident was soon forgotten...

...None was the target of a bomb, none was shot at, and there were only some 70 arrests —mostly for disorderly conduct...

...Never before, in any city at any one time, had there been a larger collection of VIPs whose lives had to be guarded every hour of the day and night...

...For protection in transit, each "security risk" was provided with his own motorcade commanded by a Captain or a higher-ranking officer, and maintained on a round-the-clock basis, for the authorities never knew when their charges might like to take the night air...

...Special precautions were also taken in the kitchen...

...The rest of the guard would fan out into the crowd...

...The crush of people in the crowded hotel lobby was so great that General Zhakharov, Khrushchev's security chief, was unable to get into the elevator with his boss...

...Mass demonstrations were an equally troublesome problem, and here the responsibility was solely that of the New York police force...

...Traffic became completely snarled and the police had to cordon off an area eight blocks square around the hotel...

...A good many of the BOSSI men spoke the language of their VIPs...

...The job of protecting them devolved on several agencies...

...The mobile reserves were nicknamed "instant cops...

...If anything untoward occurred, the men in the immediate vicinity would have thrown their bodies around him, while the other guards went after the assailant...

...Detectives intercepted the driver as he crossed the sidewalk, decided that the package was much too big to contain just a pie...

...After the parade broke up, its participants, in small groups, made their way north and soon collected, some 2,000 strong, across from Soviet headquarters, where they waved placards, shouted slogans and gave every indication of an imminent assault on the enemy...

...The foot-weary police went back to their regular assignments, looking forward to dividing up a Christmas melon of $2.9 million—the pay for the nearly one million hours in overtime they had put in...

...Each was led by a patrol car with a flashing red beacon in which the motorcade commander rode, and a second car containing New York City detectives...

...Never before had so many groups been so eager to picket so many foreign visitors...

...That afternoon, anti-Soviet organizations had staged a peaceful parade many blocks away...

...The locket contained a copy of the Ten Commandments...

...the stationary details were "wall-towall cops...

...Thus the main burden fell on the New York Police Department, which assigned 8,000 men to the task...

...680 policemen were assigned to the job...

...One of the most unwelcome duties of the guard detail was to ward off supplicants who wanted Khrushchev to liberate their relatives from the Soviet Union...

...No less than 73 assassination threats were received by the police during the period of Khrushchev's visit...

...Throughout the dignitaries' stay, relations between the American and foreign security men were characterized by a polite formality...

...As soon as a new group of pickets arrived with their banners, they were assigned to a specified location...

...In many instances, groups bent on picketing would inform the police in advance of their intentions, which expedited matters considerably...

...the force even turned up an Arabic-speaking detective to assign to Nasser...

...only 30 or 40 officers were present to guard the building...

...The only real contretemps occurred when Khrushchev suddenly rushed up to the Hotel Theresa to visit Castro, giving police no advance notice of his move...

...There were a number of other scares, but there was some comic relief, too...

...As further protection in transit, a main Security Route was laid out from Manhattan's upper East Side, where most of the mission residences were located, to the UN...

...Three helicopters circled overhead...

...We couldn't freeze an area of a mile or a mile and a half—the range of such a rifle...

...The BOSSI and State Department men, aided by members of the police bomb squad, also had the responsibility of "securing" every hotel room, banquet hall, reception lounge into which any of their charges ventured...

...One leader of the anti-Castro forces helpfully shaved his head and painted "anti-Castro" on top of it, for quick police identification of him and his flock...

...Thus began the weird 26 days of "Operation Security...

...Its normal security staff, however, numbers only about 40 people, increased to 100 for the General Assembly meeting...

...And this was just the beginning...

...Irwin Ross, author of Strategy for Liberals, has written for Reader's Digest, The New Yorker, Commentary, Harper's and other leading magazines...

...Many other problems also bedevilled the authorities...

...Bitter experience had taught the police that different groups of "antis" were likely to squabble if they shared the same picketing area, and so they arranged for several picketing "pens"—each bounded by wooden barriers—on 47th Street between First and Second Avenues...

...A green tab indicated no trouble, a yellow tab signified an alert for some picketing, and a red tab meant major trouble...

...The entire force, including the 15,000odd protecting the rest of the city, went on emergency schedule...

...And at each of the main target areas—the UN, Khrushchev's and Castro's residences—detectives equipped with walkie-talkies would fan out over several blocks to flash warning of the arrival of unexpected demonstrators...

...The "pros" were held to an area a few blocks south of the UN building and the "antis" segregated at a safe distance north of it, on 47th Street...

...Castro, who arrived by air, reached the Shelburne Hotel on Lexington Avenue late on Sunday afternoon, September 18...

...Police hastily summoned reinforcements and the mob was pushed behind wooden barriers and held in check...

...The foreigners were not allowed to carry firearms and from time to time one of Castro's many guards had to be relieved of his gun...

...Close-in" protection operates on the theory that the guard will sacrifice his life for his "principal...

...Khrushchev apparently promised to help...

...the basic work week was extended from 42 to 60 hours...

...The communications network fed information into an Operations Room at police headquarters, where three status hoards were maintained which gave up-to-the minute information, among other things, as to the locations and movements of each "security risk," the strength of his police detail, and what conditions prevailed in the area...

...From the outset, the police had their hands full...

...Early in the Soviet Premier's visit, a few people got through to him...

...All days off were canceled...

...Aircraft were not allowed within a half mile of the ship...

...On occasion, however, the irrepressible Soviet leader decided to stroll out on his small balcony overlooking Park Avenue and conduct a lengthy press conference with the reporters clustered below—thereby providing a perfect target for any sniper who was watching the scene...

...On every VIP visit to a hotel, cops were stationed in the elevator motor room, at all light switches, in the engineer's sound booth, atop skylights and at each blower of the ventilating system—lest someone launch a gas attack...

...Elsewhere, the responsibility was formally that of the U.S...

...They had to be kept out of harm's way...

...In the end, the 23 security risks departed unscathed...

...The FBI also kept "close check on these organizations and often alerted the police to potential trouble...

...Government, in which case all their movements would have been known in advance...

...The police hastily sorted out the pro-Castro demonstrators from the anti-Castro group, keeping them a block apart...

...Police even patrolled the three bridges across the East River, halting all traffic while the procession passed below...

...It was an impossible job...

...These extraordinary precautions were undertaken because Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and an entourage of Eastern European dignitaries were arriving on the Soviet ship Baltika to attend the United Nations General Assembly...

...It was not until Labor Day that the New York police force had even a tentative list of whom to expect...

...This was a Herculean task, for a diplomatic extravaganza like a General Assembly spawns hundreds of lunches, dinners, receptions and cocktail parties...

...Elevators also received careful attention...

...State Department...

...One Ukrainian woman, leaping over police barriers, managed to wrap her arms around Khrushchev, kiss him on the cheek, and plead with him to reunite her with her daughter...

...Thus, after Castro stormed out of the Shelburne, denouncing the management for allegedly mistreating him, the mobile reserve was dispatched to the Cuban UN mission quarters on East 44th Street, where a mob of Castro enthusiasts had gathered expecting their hero...

...they often slept on cots in their offices...

...A great fear was that a sniper might gain access to an apartment with an unobstructed view of the guarded premises...

...The UN, of course, was a major concentration point for pickets...

...The security problem was complicated by the fact that New York is a polyglot town, teeming with refugees and first generation Americans who have personal as well as ideological reasons to hate the likes of Khrushchev, Tito, Kadar and Castro...

...Probably no location was more carefully policed than Khrushchev's residence at Park Avenue and 68th Street...

...They included not only Khrushchev and his Communist satellite stooges like Janos Kadar of Hungary, Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej of Rumania, Antonin Novotny of Czechoslovakia and Mehmet Shehu of Albania, but such neutralists as Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt and Jawaharlal Nehru of India, as well as certain anti-Communist statesmen— notably President Eisenhower and Britain's Prime Minister Harold Macmillan...

...The Khrushchev, Castro and Kadar motorcades were the most elaborate...

...Not all hazards, of course, could be prepared for...

...On occasion, geiger counters were used in the kitchen to make sure that no radioactive material poisoned the food...

...Guarding the VIPs By Irwin Ross Recent UN session posed greatest security problem ever AS THE SMALL gray liner moved through New York harbor on the morning of September 19, it was preceded by a surfaced U.S...

...An additional precaution was to prohibit sticks attached to placards...

...One day a delivery truck was waved into the "frozen" area on Park Avenue and out came the driver with a parcel measuring 18 by 10 by 8 inches and marked "Pie— Perishable—Do Not Tilt...

...It was an elementary precaution—but one not always easy to enforce—to keep the "pros" and "antis" separated...

...They took it two buildings up the street, and put in a call for the bomb squad...