World: Rocket Rhetoric

Italy's ambitious Premier Amintore Fanfani has long yearned to take a crack at one of the most exasperating tasks of modern diplomacy: talking to Nikita Khrushchev. "He's hypnotized by the idea," said a friend. "He hopes that somehow he might bring back a great concession from Russia which will relax international tension." Last month Fanfani finally got his invitation. Hearing no nays from the Vatican, from his Western allies or from his Christian Democratic political supporters at home, last week he flew to Moscow.

Khrushchev met Fanfani and Italy's wispy Foreign Minister Antonio Segni with proper ceremony, and there were the usual three days of talks and toasts, lunches and dinners. Khrushchev, his sights set on this week's Big Four foreign ministers' meeting in Paris, mixed pointed threats with pointed jokes about Berlin. He insisted that the West must make concessions on Berlin, and renewed his expressed determination to sign a peace treaty with East Germany.

Economics Professor Fanfani answered with classroom precision: "It would be dangerous to believe that the solution of present difficulties can come from unilateral action. The [Western] will to negotiate must not be mistaken for weakness." At some point amidst the amiability and the inability to reach every agreement, Khrushchev broke out in one of his flights of rocket rhetoric. "Technicians make me laugh," he said, "when they argue over the question of whether five or maybe six rockets armed with thermonuclear warheads might be needed to demolish Great Britain. We have at least twelve already pointed at that target." And then, looking at his guest, Khrushchev remarked that Italy, with its allied missile bases, could expect its share. "This is not a threat," he added with a straight face, "just a warning."