The Third World War

Moscow. For several days following the first announcement of an allegedly successful ICBM test, the Soviet press carried no further statements from Soviet sources. Instead, they reprinted dozens of Western articles that not only accepted but grossly inflated the Soviet claim. This procedure confirms that: 1) the primary purpose of the ICBM announcement was domestic—to prop the prestige of the Khrushchev faction within the Soviet Union and (perhaps even more particularly) in the captive nations; 2) the Kremlin takes for granted that its subjects do not believe the home press, but will give some credence to what is printed in London, Paris and New York.

Sopot (Poland). A Jazz Festival, with no overt political motive, took place July 14-24. Jazz outfits present included the Joki Freund Quintet from Frankfurt; the Spree City Stompers from Berlin; the Dixieland ‘57 unit from Prague; the Riverside Syncopators from Genoa; and several Polish organizations, among them Cracow’s Hot Club Mellowmen and Gdanik’s Modern Jazz Sextet. There were individual American performers, but no American group. The Warsaw critic judged that “the acme of the Festival was the work of chocolate-covered Albert Nicholas, the prominent clarinetist from New Orleans.”

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James Burnham

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Moscow. For several days following the first announcement of an allegedly successful ICBM test, the Soviet press carried no further statements from Soviet sources. Instead, they reprinted dozens of Western articles that not only accepted but grossly inflated the Soviet claim. This procedure confirms that: 1) the primary purpose of the ICBM announcement was domestic—to prop the prestige of the Khrushchev faction within the Soviet Union and (perhaps even more particularly) in the captive nations; 2) the Kremlin takes for granted that its subjects do not believe the home press, but will give some credence to what is printed in London, Paris and New York.

Sopot (Poland). A Jazz Festival, with no overt political motive, took place July 14-24. Jazz outfits present included the Joki Freund Quintet from Frankfurt; the Spree City Stompers from Berlin; the Dixieland ‘57 unit from Prague; the Riverside Syncopators from Genoa; and several Polish organizations, among them Cracow’s Hot Club Mellowmen and Gdanik’s Modern Jazz Sextet. There were individual American performers, but no American group. The Warsaw critic judged that “the acme of the Festival was the work of chocolate-covered Albert Nicholas, the prominent clarinetist from New Orleans.”