Kozyakov Commentary
Moscow in English to Eastern North America 2200 GMT 25 November 1963--L
(Text) People the world over share the grief of America.
Men and women from varied walks of life and of varied persuasions, industrial
workers and businessmen, Catholics and communists, expressed their sympathy.
There is great universal sorrow that John Kennedy is no more. People regard this
loss of the American nation as a blow to world peace, the cause that unites all
of mankind.
The late President had a keen understanding of the
ramifications of today's problem of war and peace. He could see that the
struggle going on in a world divided by different social systems could not be
waged in the way that some of his compatriots proposed. President Kennedy
realized that was was no solution for world problems. Total war, he declared,
makes no sense in an age when great powers can maintain large and relatively
invulnerable nuclear forces and refuse to surrender without resort to those
forces. The late John Kennedy stressed more than once that if there was a war
the United States and other countries would suffer very heavy blows. We have to
proceed with responsibility and with care, he declared, in an age when the human
race can obliterate itself.
President Kennedy displayed his sense of responsibility and
care perhaps to the fullest extent during last year's Caribbean crisis. Instead
of yielding to the men who demanded an immediate invasion of Cuba, he sought a
compromise with the USSR. This showed real statesmanship. Several months later
President Kennedy warned against rash action against Cuba. He hoped, he told the
American Society of Newspaper Editors last April, that the United States would
not lose restraint and a sense of responsibility in its policy toward Cuba.
The late President again showed statesmanly acumen in his
attitude toward such a major problem as disarmament. Reporting to Congress early
this year on the state of the union, he said: "We do not dismiss disarmament as
merely an idle dream, for we believe that in the end it is the only way to
assure the security of all without impairing the interests of any."
Though the disarmament problem has yet to be solved,
President Kennedy will go down in history as one of the men who shaped the first
splendid move toward that great goal. It was thanks to his constructive attitude
that the Moscow treaty outlawing nuclear tests in three environments was signed.
The President felt this treaty would help to check the spread of nuclear
weapons. He considered that one of its good points. "The people should keep in
mind always," he said, "that the alternative is the spread of these weapons to
governments which may be irresponsible or which by accident may initiate a
general nuclear conflagration."
The late President was much concerned that no solution was
being reached for the problem of West Berlin. Again and again he noted that this
problem endangered the peace, but he stood firmly for its negotiation. The
United States, he stressed, would seek ways to settle the problem of West Berlin
by peaceful means. The President was optimistic. He believed that a solution
could be found and that then relations would improve between America and the
Soviet Union. President Kennedy attached great significance to these relations.
He once remarked that he intended to try to live in peace with all countries,
especially with those whose military potential was such that any big conflict
would affect the future of both countries and all of humanity.
Soviet people will remember Mr. Kennedy's speech at American
University in Washington, in which he called for a reappraisal of America's
attitude toward the Soviet Union. "Among the many traits the peoples of our two
countries have in common," he said, "none is stronger than our mutual abhorrence
of war, and even in the cold war our two countries bear the heaviest burdens. In
short," said the late president, "both the United States and its allies and the
Soviet Union and its allies have a mutually deep interest in a just and genuine
peace and in halting the arms race. Agreements to this end are in the interests
of the Soviet Union as well as in our interests."
President Kennedy was the future of Soviet-American relations
in peaceful cooperation and peaceful economic competition. Our two countries, he
felt, would benefit the most from a lasting world peace. "I want to emphasize,"
he told IZVESTIYA, "that there is nothing that would satisfy the American people
more than to see the two countries living at peace and the people of the two
countries enjoying their steadily increasing standard of living."
The late John Kennedy believed that cooperation between
America and the Soviet Union in any field would help to strengthen peace. He
favored an exchange of information, exchanges of opinion, and other forms of
contact. As these contacts improved, he felt, there would be an easing of the
peace-endangering tension. "Cooperation in the pursuit of knowledge," he said,
"can hopefully lead to cooperation in the pursuit of peace."
We Soviet people, writes Vladislav Kozyakov, appreciate these
views on world peace and Soviet-American cooperation. They echo the principles
of peaceful coexistence of countries with different social systems that form the
cornerstone of Soviet foreign policy. It is our hope that this source will
continue to be pursued for the sake of world peace.
The people of the Soviet Union well remember what President
Kennedy said when the Moscow treaty was initialed last July: "This treaty is not
the millennium," he said. "It will not resolve all conflicts or eliminate the
dangers of war, but it is an important first step, a step toward peace, a step
toward reason, a step away from war. So let us turn the world from war," said
the late President. "Let us make the most of this opportunity and every
opportunity to reduce tension, to slow down the perilous nuclear arms race and
to check the world's slide to final annihilation."
Today these words acquire the significance of a legacy. They
are the plea of an eminent American who faced our stormy age with wisdom and
statesmanship.