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N0KFQ > TODAY 15.11.13 16:10l 53 Lines 2393 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Nov 15
Path: IZ3LSV<I0OJJ<VE3UIL<N0KFQ<KB0WSA
Sent: 131115/1504Z 7260@KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.57
Nov 15, 1957:
Nikita Khrushchev challenges United States to a missile "shooting
match"
In a long and rambling interview with an American reporter,
Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev claims that the Soviet Union has
missile superiority over the United States and challenges America
to a missile "shooting match" to prove his assertion. The
interview further fueled fears in the United States that the
nation was falling perilously behind the Soviets in the arms
race.
The interview elicited the usual mixture of boastful belligerence
and calls for "peaceful coexistence" with the West that was
characteristic of Khrushchev's public statements during the late
1950s. He bragged about Soviet missile superiority, claiming that
the United States did not have intercontinental ballistic
rockets; "If she had," the Russian leader sneered, "she would
have launched her own sputnik." He then issued a challenge:
"Let's have a peaceful rocket contest just like a rifle-shooting
match, and they'll see for themselves." Speaking about the future
of East-West relations, Khrushchev stated that the American and
Soviet people both wanted peace. He cautioned, however, that
although the Soviet Union would never start a war, "some
lunatics" might bring about a conflict. In particular, he noted
that Secretary of State John Foster Dulles had created "an
artificial war psychosis." In the case of war, it "would be
fought on the American continent, which can be reached by our
rockets." NATO forces in Europe would also be devastated, and
Europe "might become a veritable cemetery." While the Soviet
Union would "suffer immensely," the forces of communism would
ultimately destroy capitalism.
Khrushchev's remarks came just a few days after the Gaither
Report had been leaked to the press in the United States. The
report supported many of the Russian leader's contentions,
charging that the United States was falling far behind the
Soviets in the arms race. Critics of President Dwight D.
Eisenhower's foreign policy, particularly from the Democratic
Party, went on the attack. The public debate concerning the
alleged "missile gap" between U.S. and Soviet rocket arsenals
continued through the early 1960s and was a major issue in the
1960 presidential campaign between Richard Nixon and John F.
Kennedy.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ KB0WSA.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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