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Sunday, October 01, 2006

October 1, 1960: Khrushchev 'Outburst' at UN, Peiping Threatens Taiwan, Missile Warning Line Active, JFK Won't 'Mislead' East Europe

The only way to avert atomic war is to admit Communist China to the United Nations, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev told the General Assembly today. Khrushchev also attached the United States for lynchings and racial discrimination.

Khrushchev's "angry outburst," as it would be described in the New York Times tomorrow, and his "extraordinary virulence ... threw the General Assembly into an uproar, and sent a pall over the gathering of diplomats in New York and the UN, upon which hopes had been placed for an improvement in the cold war climate."

Khrushchev's long speech, during which he was called to order, was seen as scuttling any hope for a meeting between President Eisenhower and the Soviet leader. This was a setback for the neutralist bloc, which had been making progress in its efforts to bring the two leaders together.

Peiping today promised today to take over Taiwan. The pledge came during a celebration of Communist China's 11th anniversary. No Soviet representative was in attendance. Foreign Minister Chen Yi said his country would not accept "two Chinas." He accused the US of invading his country's air space and territorial waters.

The first of three radar stations in Greenland designed to warn of Soviet missile attack began round-the-clock operations today. The Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) supplements the existing Distant Early Warning (DEW) system in Canada and the arctic for detecting Soviet aircraft.

"From now on, day and night, a major portion of the Communist world will be covered by fan-shaped curtains beamed from a desolate Thule hillside," the New York Times will report in tomorrow's edition. "Turning on the Thule beams full time greatly lessens chances that a long-range missile attack could take this continent by surprise."

United States residents in the target area will have at least 15 minutes to receive the warning and take shelter. The military will have the same amount of time to launch its missiles and get its bombers in the air.

Senator John F. Kennedy said today that he would use peaceful means to help bring democracy to Eastern Europe. Speaking in Chicago Kennedy criticized President Eisenhower for raising false hope that the US would liberate the Soviet satellite nations.

"We do not want to mislead the people of Poland or Hungary again that the United States is prepared to liberate them, he said. "We have no right, unless we are prepared to meet our commitments, to incite them to national suicide," he said

In the mid-west Vice President Richard Nixon, the Republican nominee for president, told an overflow crowd that Kennedy "owes it to his party and to his country to cease the irresponsible attacks on the president."