alternatehistory.com

I've recently been employing "Power in the Kremlin" (Michel Tatu) as a postprandial read. Toward the beginning,the author, a French journalist, suggested Khrushchev favored attending the 1960 Geneva conference even after the U-2 incident, perhaps in part to utilize his augmented leverage after the spyplane's downing. As it happened, he was quashed by politburo hard-liners. One of the more nuanced arguments used against attending the conference was that Soviet participation would exacerbate the brewing Sino-Soviet split.
In any event, Eisenhower was a lame duck by 1960, and even were he receptive Kennedy/Nixon would pour cold water on any agreements. That said, the confidence-building could still have proven useful.
thoughts?
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