The WEEK

Two-thirds of the Swiss men who voted on the woman suffrage issue, voted no. You can bet your life it was a secret ballot.

In regimented ranks the leaders of the world proletariat mounted the rostrum at the twenty-first Congress of the Communist Party to tell the robot delegates below, dutifully listening to speeches that lasted up to Khrushchev’s 61/2 hour, 45,000 word marathon, what to think and what to say. Soviet production will surpass U.S. production at the end of the Seven Year Plan. Soviet arms have outmoded U.S. arms. Soviet missiles can hit a dime at half way round the earth. Soviet space vehicles are just about ready to reach the Pole Star. The Soviet Navy is the terror of all the oceans. Soviet freedom puts to shame the fraudulent democracy of capitalism. Soviet scientists, Soviet technicians, Soviet students, Soviet factories, Soviet schools, and of course Soviet leaders are the biggest and best that the world has ever seen…. Is it possible, is it just possible that the comrades have protested so much too much that in the world’s and their own suffering peoples’ eyes their Congress ended up looking like a farce, not the intended triumph?

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William F. Buckley Jr.

Two-thirds of the Swiss men who voted on the woman suffrage issue, voted no. You can bet your life it was a secret ballot.

In regimented ranks the leaders of the world proletariat mounted the rostrum at the twenty-first Congress of the Communist Party to tell the robot delegates below, dutifully listening to speeches that lasted up to Khrushchev’s 61/2 hour, 45,000 word marathon, what to think and what to say. Soviet production will surpass U.S. production at the end of the Seven Year Plan. Soviet arms have outmoded U.S. arms. Soviet missiles can hit a dime at half way round the earth. Soviet space vehicles are just about ready to reach the Pole Star. The Soviet Navy is the terror of all the oceans. Soviet freedom puts to shame the fraudulent democracy of capitalism. Soviet scientists, Soviet technicians, Soviet students, Soviet factories, Soviet schools, and of course Soviet leaders are the biggest and best that the world has ever seen…. Is it possible, is it just possible that the comrades have protested so much too much that in the world’s and their own suffering peoples’ eyes their Congress ended up looking like a farce, not the intended triumph?