Conversations at U.S. Embassy
Moscow in English to Eastern North America 2224 GMT 25 November 1963--L
(Vadim Golovanov dispatch)
(Text) "My entire family was shocked to hear about the
death of President Kennedy," Mrs. Khrushcheva said to the U.S. ambassador and
his wife.
All the people in the Soviet Union regard this tragedy as
something which affects them personally. I saw sorrow both in the faces of the
Americans and the Russians who were gathered around the glowing fireplace in the
ambassador's living room, our correspondent writes. I saw both alarm and grief
in the faces of people all over Moscow in the days following Black Friday. As I
travel to work in the morning on the subway I see people reading the latest news
about the assassination. For most of our people, Kennedy and death seem
incompatible. I think that not a single Western statesman was respected in our
country as much as the late American president. The sorrow of the people here is
sincere. I have seen sincere tears in the eyes of our women. Radio and
television news programs those days are almost entirely devoted to dispatches
from America. Mournful music can be heard the whole day long.
"It is becoming a smaller and smaller world," Foy Kohler said
in his talk with the Soviet delegation. He had in mind the direct television
program from America to Moscow via the Telstar satellite. Mrs. Khrushcheva told
the American ambassador and his wife how deeply sorry the Khrushchev family felt
about the death of John Kennedy. Mrs. Khrushcheva said her grandson kept asking
why they had failed to protect John Kennedy. Mrs. Khruscheva's daughter, Rada,
took the news very hard because she had met the late U.S. President when she had
visited America.
The American ambassador said in a sad voice that for him
personally it was not only a loss of a great statesman but also of a remarkable
man whom he knew very well. Mr. Kohler conveyed Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy's
grateful words to Mrs. Khrushcheva for her telegram of sympathy. The U.S.
ambassador told Mrs. Khrushcheva that he gave Premier Khrushchev a telegram of
reply from President Johnson, who stated that he will follow John Kennedy's
policy. Mr. Kohler said that he was touched by the fact that the Russians are
sharing the American people's grief.
The U.S. Embassy is receiving many letters and phone calls
from Soviet people expressing their condolences. The U.S. ambassador said he was
moved by Moscow's television program about John Kennedy last night. The woman
announcer in that program broke into tears during the broadcast.