IZVESTIYA Coverage
Moscow Domestic Service in Russian 1430 GMT 23 November 1963--L
(IZVESTIYA Review)
(Text) IZVESTIYA frontpages a report on the murder of
President John Kennedy. The paper carries the telegrams of sympathy which have
been sent by Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Nina Petrovna Khrushchev, and Gromyko to
President Lyndon Johnson, Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy, and Secretary of State Rusk
in connection with the tragic death of John Kennedy.
The paper also carried detailed reports by its own
correspondents in New York and Washington describing the circumstances of the
death of John Kennedy.
America is shocked, its New York correspondent, Stansilav
Kondrashev, writes. People are gathering in silent groups at the windows of the
television shops and at cars with their radios on. The television stations, as a
sign of mourning, have stopped all their transmissions except those connected
with the murder of the president and the first activities of his successor.
Local observers believe real changes in both domestic and
foreign policy are improbable in the next few months. Johnson needs time to work
out his course. The New York TIMES supposes that the United States will continue
the line of the Moscow treaty, which, in its words, is Kennedy's memorial.
The death of Kennedy poses a number of other questions, and
not the least is who will be elected President at the end of 1964. Until
yesterday, the majority had supposed that Kennedy was guaranteed reelection.
Will Johnson become the candidate of the Democratic Party at the elections in
November next year? Are the chances of the Republicans increased? To these
questions there is as yet no answer, although it is obvious that the preelection
balance is changed.
The correspondents also note that many Americans connect the
murder of Kennedy with the activities of ultraright racist elements.
(Editor's Note: Moscow TASS International Service in Russian at 0827 GMT 23 November states that "NEDELYA, the Sunday appendage of IZVESTIYA, appears with the headline, 'Tragic News from Texas: Villainous Assassination of U.S. President John Kennedy.' Nearly the whole front page is taken up by a big photograph of the President.")