Communists: Advice from the Host

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Winding up his 15-day state visit to Yugoslavia last week, Nikita Khrushchev found himself playing an unusual role—that of listener. Evidently he hoped to offset the Russian split with Red China by getting closer to Tito, with whom relations ever since 1955 have alternated between fairly warm and fairly chilly. Khrushchev not only swallowed Tito's determination to maintain his status as a Communist "independent," but in a four-day session at the island retreat of Brioni patiently listened to his host's advice on how to outbid the Chinese in the struggle for the leadership of the Red world.

Red Summit. According to probably deliberate conference leaks, Tito told Khrushchev that Russia must play up to the emerging Afro-Asian nations to halt increasing Chinese penetration. Added Tito: As long as China is not a member of the U.N. (both Russia and Yugoslavia favor Peking's admission, but with waning enthusiasm), Moscow could make headway by supporting the Afro-Asian drive for membership in the U.N. Security and Economic and Social councils. Tito also said that Russia is being too doctrinaire in writing off Afro-Asian countries such as Syria, Algeria, Egypt and Iraq, which have outlawed local Communist parties. Since most of the emerging states are adopting one-party socialist governments anyway, said Tito, the Soviets should back them for the time being, worry about pushing Communism later.

Tito and Khrushchev agreed to hold an anti-Chinese Communist summit conference soon, both to consolidate Russia's position in the conflict with China and to state formally that Chinese warmongering is far more harmful to world Communism than Yugoslavia's "revisionism." But Tito and his guest seemed to shy away from much closer relations. Tito ignored Khrushchev's apparent desire to address the Yugoslav parliament, and Russia cold-shouldered Yugoslavia's request for massive economic aid, granted Belgrade only observer status in Comecon, the satellites' more or less common market. "Differences still exist between us on party matters," said one Yugoslav official. "If we press for closer contacts, an open quarrel might develop."

On to Cuba. At a joint press conference with Tito, Khrushchev announced that he is not coming to the U.N. General Assembly in New York this month but is going to Cuba instead, also hinted that he might be available for a visit to Egypt. Then he gave the press a sample of his famous earthiness. When a questioner sought to bring out discord between Russia and Yugoslavia by asking him to compare living standards in the two countries (higher in Yugoslavia), Khrushchev got angry. "Why are you trying to sniff a smell from the rectum?" he said. "This is not the most beautiful part of the body." Anyway, Khrushchev added blissfully, Soviet relations with Yugoslavia are "eternal."