'Initial Uncertainty'
Moscow TASS International Service in English 1854 GMT 23 November 1963--L
(Excerpts) New York--The United States is shocked,
grieved, and confused by the murder of President Kennedy. The shock was
tremendous. Regardless of whether or not they agreed with the policy of the
President or whether or not they had doubts about it, Americans could hardly
believe that this energetic young statesman, who stood at the helm of American
policy, had suddenly perished.
Everybody except the "ultras" was shocked. Kennedy's murder
was not a shock for the John Birch Society, the Ku Klux Klan, and other "ultra-rightwingers."
But it came as a thunderbolt to most Americans.
High-ranking officials and ordinary people ask what President
Kennedy's death and Lyndon Johnson's assumption of the presidency foreshadow.
What do they hold for East-West relations and progress along the road of
international agreement and toward peace?
Marvin Kalb, Washington correspondent of the Columbia
Broadcasting System, says that Washington is uncertain about foreign policy and
especially about East-West relations, but, Kalb believes, President Johnson will
abide in the main by a course similar to that steered by President Kennedy. The
New York TIMES believes that for the time being there will be uncertainties
regarding the course of American foreign policy. The paper says that the
paralysis will continue until President Johnson announces his program and the
means and methods of its implementation.