ONE
VATICAN II
AND THE
COLD WAR
- • • Gerald P. Fogarty
On January 25, 1959, John XXIII, elected only three months ear-
lier, startled the world by convoking the Second Vatican Council.
He would create yet more surprise by his relations with Nikita
Khrushchev, premier of the Soviet Union and general secretary
of its Communist Party. Both men, so different in religious faith,
were wily peasants, unafraid to try something new. On the eve of
the Council, each was drawing closer to the other, but for vast-
ly different reasons. On September 10, 1961, the pope issued a
plea for negotiations between East and West to end threats to
peace. His appeal won support from Khrushchev, who said the
pope “talks common sense.” In an interview with reporters from
Pravda, the Communist Party newspaper, and Izvestia, the gov-
ernment’s paper, the Soviet leader said that he welcomed such
appeals, “no matter from what source.” He went on to ask, “will
such adherents of the Catholic faith as John Kennedy and Kon-
rad Adenauer and others heed the ‘sacred warning’ of the Pope
of Rome?”
In his speech, the pope had called on leaders to settle their
differences and “face squarely the tremendous responsibilities
they bear before the tribunal of history and, what is more, be-
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