How Russia Sees Kennedy:

...One is fully justified in concluding that both in the economic field as well as in the field of international politics, the main power of capitalism has entered a phase of growing difficulty and crises—the phase of its decline...

...In stimulating relaxation, though, Khrushchev may be less interested in reaching actual settlements with the U.S...

...It would be easy to write off this black image of America if it was intended only for domestic consumption...

...The Soviet press began to lay the ground for negotiations with the new Administration early in the year...

...This view of America and capitalism naturally colors Russian predictions for Soviet-American relations...

...Having been burned once, however, he can no longer be sure of how America will respond...

...than in creating the appearance of negotiation, and thereby encouraging Britain, France and West Germany to look toward Moscow...

...The Soviet Premier may indeed feel that the disadvantages of the limited inspection system proposed are far outweighed by the advantages to the Soviet Union of an atmosphere of relaxation in which the United States will find it increasingly hard to bolster Western unity...

...Evidently the Soviet Premier still hopes that the alternative of cooperation will prove more attractive to Washington than the prospect of a few more Congos all seething at once...

...Colette Blackmoore, a member of the Moscow Bureau of United Press International in 1956-59 and director of the Anglo-American School in Moscow in 1955-56, is a free lance writer...

...For some days thereafter, all one could learn about the United States from the two leading Soviet newspapers was that it was rejoicing over Khrushchev's congratulatory cable to Kennedy and over the release of the RB-47 fliers...

...At the same time, Moscow Radio began broadcasting optimism to the whole world...

...The American people, implied Pravda and Izvestia, took both these events as omens that the cold war, like the harsh winter of 1960-61, would soon thaw...

...It wants, together with America, fairly and peacefully to solve the problems dividing us and threatening universal peace...

...2. President Kennedy could face reality, as the Soviet Union sees it, and gracefully accept defeat...

...The President's proposed measures for economic recovery may alleviate present distress, in the Soviet view, but they cannot prevent the next inevitable recession —which is likely to be worse than the current one...

...Just last month the Premier warned, "Among the ruling classes of the imperialist camp, a fear for the future of capitalism prevails...

...The most striking aspect of Soviet policy since the November declaration of the 81 Communist parties is that it adds an "or else" to the bid for Western cooperation...

...What the Soviet leadership thinks of the Kennedy Administration is closely related to its current evaluation of the American economy...

...In his January speech interpreting the recent Communist summit conference, Khrushchev expressed confidence that the U.S...

...This would give the Soviet Union a free hand to continue to make piecemeal gains, until it would not be a case of capitalism encircling Communism or of "who is encircling whom," as the Soviet press now delicately describes it, but of unequivocal Communist encirclement...

...If the United States responds effectively to the challenge of "peaceful coexistence," however, the Soviets will have to take another look at their strategy...

...The Soviet Union, it said, "wants its relations with the United States to be normal...

...Stillborn myths," said Pravda, and for the President to repeat them is not "common sense...

...And a week after the State of the Union message, when the Communist party Central Committee had had plenty of time to reflect, Pravda reminded its readers that "the new Government in Washington is still just taking its first steps the near future will reveal whether it is ready to face reality, which demands that it renounce the decrepit dogmas of the 'cold war' and adopt a new course in U.S...

...The Soviet Premier went on to declare that "The American monopolists have been and remain the principal usurers and exploiters of the peoples...

...is learning and will learn to cope with its problems...

...The American economic recession has preoccupied the Russians for many months and continues to do so...

...He must recognize once and for all that the Communist bloc will soon have absolute superiority over the West and therefore the only sensible course would be to bring American policies into line with the new balance of forces...

...The most reactionary circles are showing increasing- nervousness and a tendency toward adventurism and aggression, which they hope will improve the shaken state of their affairs...

...The losses of the United States and of capitalism as a whole, he said, are "irreparable...

...If the Kennedy Administration is not responsive to Khrushchev's idea of a détente, the November manifesto implies a Soviet willingness to stir up agitation in pressure points around the globe—Berlin, Laos, the Congo, Japan, Belgium, Latin America and wherever else there are conflicts to exploit...

...Nor is there any sign in other Soviet statements that the Soviet Union expects capitalist "nervousness" to get out of hand at the present time...

...The new combination of "cooperate or else" appears to be a result of Khrushchev's failure last spring to get concessions from the United States on Berlin—and of criticism by the Chinese of his policy of détente...

...Khrushchev calls this "bringing imperialism to heel" through "peaceful coexistence," and it is clearly what he would like most...

...But there is still another prospect, short of war...

...As Pravda succinctly editorialized, "It goes without saying that no one can cure the capitalist economy of its ailments —it is incurable...

...From the Soviet press, it is apparent that the Kremlin sees at least two ways in which the U.S...

...But this criticism has been highly qualified...

...Along with its first negative reactions, for example, Izvestia carefully invoked the "partisans of the old force who do not wish to yield" and "old influences dating back to Eisenhower which still prevail," instead of attributing anti-Soviet attitudes to Kennedy directly...

...Nowhere in Soviet statements can one find the slightest suggestion that the U.S...

...will not recover from shocks suffered at home and abroad and will prove increasingly unable to use its economic resources effectively...

...1. If the United States feels that the tide is running heavily in the wrong direction, it might launch an all-out war against the USSR in a desperate effort to prevent a peaceful Communist victory...

...could respond to the Soviet challenge of "peaceful coexistence...

...In the Soviet Press How Russia Sees Kennedy By Colette Blackmoore BY THE time the daffodils are pushing their way up into the spring air, Nikita Khrushchev may be sending—or bringing—his renewed gestures of "peaceful coexistence" like a spring bouquet to the new American Administration...

...Hardly a single strike, stock market fluctuation, crisis in agriculture, statistic of rising unemployment or notice of declining industrial output and gold reserve has gone unreported in the Soviet press...

...But, he said, "we possess increasing possibilities for placing obstacles in the path of the warmongers...

...True, some of the President's statements have been criticized...

...But there is ample evidence that the Soviet leaders take America's economic recession very seriously...

...This tactic would be difficult for the United States to handle, because it cannot easily take the position of being against negotiation...

...On inauguration day, January 20, it abruptly muffled its theme of "ugly America" and stressed the vision of a "hopeful America" eager to improve Soviet-American relations...

...hopes for the ultimate freedom of Eastern Europe and to the need for America to further build up its armed forces...

...foreign policy...

...Khrushchev and the Soviet press often mention this possibility, but with apparently growing confidence that it will not happen in the foreseeable future...

...Thus he apparently is still studying all the available clues to Kennedy's character and outlook and will await a first meeting with him before drawing definitive conclusions...

...Pravda and Izvestia have quoted extensively from the President's frank analyses of the economic situation, playing up his remarks that the U.S...

...economy is in trouble and Americans had best prepare for the worst...

...Consequently, we can forestall the outbreak of a world war...

...One Moscow Radio comment put disarmament and a nuclear test ban first among major international problems, saying that "some progress toward the solution of these problems would reduce international tension...

...Thanks to censorship of some of the more optimistic parts of Kennedy's messages, the impression left with Soviet readers is that the United States is close to collapse...

...But what are his real thoughts on the future of U.S.-Russian relations...

...While there has been much talk in the Soviet press about the desire on both sides for negotiation, it is interesting to note that there has been almost no discussion of specific issues which the Russians hope to settle through negotiation...

...This and other references to the importance of banning nuclear tests suggests that Khrushchev may now be prepared to close the narrowing gap between the Soviet and the Western positions at Geneva...

...Pravda and Izvestia particularly did not like the references in his State of the Union message to Communist ambition for world domination, to U.S...

...To a regular reader of the Soviet press, it appears that the Soviet Premier, contrary to early indications, has not yet made up his mind about John F. Kennedy...

...Khrushchev, who certainly misjudged his influence on Eisenhower at Camp David, obviously does not want to commit the same error where the new President is concerned...

...It is necessary, in the words of the manifesto, "to intensify the vigorous actions of the masses in defense of peace" and to "arouse the righteous indignation of the peoples against those who follow a war policy...

...The Russians seem convinced that America's balance of payments problem, the disruption of traditional ties with overseas markets and resources and intensified competition with West Germany, Britain and France will result in a lowering rate of industrial growth and still more unemployment...