Petrusenko On U.S.-USSR Relations
Moscow TASS International Service in English 2050 GMT 25 November 1963--L
(Text) New York--One of the most important questions now
uppermost in the minds of millions of Americans is the question of how
American-Soviet relations will develop following President Kennedy's tragic
death and Lyndon Johnson's accession to the presidency. This question was raised
by radio and television commentators literally in the very first hours after
President Kennedy's villainous assassination. Initial comment expressed the hope
that the policy of easing tension in East-West relations--the policy of reaching
mutual understanding between the United States and the USSR followed by the late
President--will be continued by Lyndon Johnson.
Americans feel with particular acuteness their great
loss--the death of the outstanding statesman who realized the necessity of
normalizing relations between the two great nuclear powers. Will Johnson
continue Kennedy's foreign policy? This question is incessantly asked by
American newspapers. The well-informed WALL STREET JOURNAL today reports that
President Johnson told Secretary of State Rusk of his intention to carry on
Kennedy's foreign policy not for the sake of continuity but because his policy
was correct. Senator Fulbright, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, emphasized that in his opinion there will be no changes in U.S.
foreign policy.
It is natural that all of Johnson's former pronouncements now
evoke exceptional interest. In a selection of his statements prepared by AP and
published by a number of American newspapers, his pronouncements on
American-Soviet relations are given first place. Mutual relations are the key to
peace, Johnson declared in New York on 15 October. If the Soviet Union wants to
cooperate with America, it can have this cooperation.
Touching on American-Soviet relations in his speech on 11
November, Johnson declared that reasonable agreements are now and again
possible, and that they will ease tension in certain areas of the world where
conflicts arise. These are agreements concluded in accordance with mutual
interests.
At the same time, one cannot overlook various statements and
pronouncements that have appeared in the American press. In some articles, for
example, the provocative idea is repeatedly expressed that the Soviet Union will
attempt to use the change in power in Washington to "increase pressure on the
West." However, millions of Americans hope that American-Soviet relations will
continue to develop in the spirit of cooperation and mutual understanding which
the late American President desired and for which he strove.