VATICAN II AND THE COLD WAR 41the United States. The communiqué was hardly friendly, but it
made no mention of the missiles in Turkey, the removal of which
caused opposition in Turkey. Kennedy acknowledged the mes-
sage, and negotiations began at the United Nations.30 Although
tensions between the two superpowers remained high during No-
vember as the United States negotiated for the removal of Soviet
bombers as well as missiles from Cuba, the crisis had passed. The
world pulled back from the brink of nuclear war.
John XXIII’s plea for negotiations had no perceptible effect
on the conduct of the United States during the crisis, although
Kennedy is reported to have thanked the pope through the U.S.
embassy to Italy.31 But the pope’s initiative did have an effect on
Khrushchev. Although it remains uncertain how much the papal
plea actually influenced the Soviet premier’s response to Kenne-
dy, it did set in motion a series of events that brought the Holy
See and the Soviet Union into more direct contact. Moreover, the
end of the crisis prompted John XXIII to instruct Father Pietro
Pavan, professor of theology at the Pontifical Lateran University,
to draft an encyclical, Pacem in terris, which he issued on April
11, 1963. Following the spirit, if not the actual wording, of his ra-
dio address, the letter was addressed not only to the hierarchy
of the Catholic Church and those in communion with her, but
to “All men of good will.” The pope’s attitude toward establishing
permanent peace, furthermore, did lead to further direct contact
between the Soviet Union and the Vatican.
During the Andover meeting that Cousins hosted, Father
Morlion proposed to the Soviet delegates that they explore com-
munications between the Vatican and Moscow. He informed the
Soviets that Cousins would be acceptable to the Vatican as a medi-
ator if he was also acceptable to Moscow to undertake preliminary
contacts. Late in November, Cousins received a call from Ambas-
- Khrushchev to Kennedy, October 28, 1962, in ibid., 226–29, 230–32.
- Zizola, Utopia, 9.