Word: ultimatums
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...talks in a week or two, and the chief interest now centered on a search for an interim agreement committing all Big Four powers to maintain something like the status quo in Berlin. The Russians, who wanted something to show for backing off farther from Khrushchev's Berlin ultimatum (which expired uneventfully on the day of Dulles' funeral), were haggling for token concessions from the West. Sample: a promise from the West to diminish its intelligence and propaganda operations in West Berlin. The Western ministers indicated their willingness to make some such concessions...
Nikita Khrushchev was thus conspicuously not at his desk on the day his Berlin ultimatum expired. But why else had he flown off to Albania? Rome's Communist L'Unitá volunteered one explanation: "The West should realize that if Khrushchev is hot, he can take a cooling swim in the Adriatic. The Socialist stronghold, which extends from the Elbe to the Red River of Viet Nam, also reaches from the Bering Strait to the Adriatic." Khrushchev himself, who did not go swimming, as usual put his presence to use. Barreling through Europe's wildest and remotest...
Finally Braithwaite lost his temper, tongue-lashed his laggards. Beginning immediately, he told them, they were to act like ladies, gentlemen-and scholars. They sat amazed as he gave his startling ultimatum: girls were to be addressed as Miss, boys were to be referred to by their surnames. He himself, he announced, would answer only to Sir or Mr. Braithwaite. When one boy objected that he knew the girls too well for formality, Braithwaite scored a tactical victory. "Is there any young lady present whom you consider unworthy of your courtesies?" he asked. The girls glared at the rebel...
...these factors helped to explain Britain's singular preoccupation last week with the need, and the expectancy, of bringing off fruitful negotiations at the summit. Other NATO partners were prepared to talk at the summit, but - thanks largely to Khrushchev's retreat from his original "either or" ultimatum - were in no mood to yield easily. No longer so fearful that a real ultimatum showdown with Russia was at hand, they felt less need to make a parade of unreal unanimity...
...that he had been grievously misunderstood. Nattily turned out in a dark business suit enlivened by two gold "Hero of the Soviet Union" medals, Nikita spent two hours adroitly fielding questions from 300 Russian and a handful of Western newsmen. The notion that he had given the West an ultimatum to get out of Berlin by May 27, he said, was "an unscrupulous interpretation of our position." How had the six months deadline come about? "We looked up at the ceiling, weighed everything and concluded that ... if children are born in nine months, the question of West Berlin...