Archbishop’s praise for Khruschev (1959)

By Darryl Armitage
Published 23rd Oct 2021, 12:00 BST
Nikita Khruschev and Dwight Eisenhower with their wives at a state dinner in 1959, both men were still leaders of the Soviet Union and the United States of America respectively at the time.Nikita Khruschev and Dwight Eisenhower with their wives at a state dinner in 1959, both men were still leaders of the Soviet Union and the United States of America respectively at the time.
Nikita Khruschev and Dwight Eisenhower with their wives at a state dinner in 1959, both men were still leaders of the Soviet Union and the United States of America respectively at the time.
During a discussion on disarmament at the meeting of the British Council of Churches at Lambeth Palace the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Geoffrey Fisher had words of praise for Soviet Premier Mr Nikita Khruschev.

“I am surprised that no Christian body has made any comment about Mr Khruschev’s disarmament statement which he made in America.

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“No Christian could possibly have put forward a better plan than this. He asked for total disarmament and full control.

“I am thankful that our statesmen said that they received it with great respect and would investigate it. No Christian body has yet come to say. ‘Well at last somebody has said what every Christian has been praying for years’ – total disarmament and full control.”

The Archbishop added: “And I still don’t know why nobody said it. He could not more effectively read the passage from the New Testament.”

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A report by the council’s group on the moral aspects of disarmament said that the West must “get away from the position of threatening to be the first to use weapons of total war, and must reduce its reliance on using ‘tactical smaller atomic weapons in the case of limited violence”.

Related topics:Soviet

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