July 4, 1963 - Premier Nikita Khrushchev (pictured right in 1961) sent President Kennedy and the American people “warm congratulations and wishes of peace and prosperity” today in a July 4 message. With his thoughts perhaps on Communist China’s opposition to his policy of “peaceful coexistence,” Mr. Khrushchev told the President: “In our age, the age of harnessing nuclear energy and penetrating the depths of the universe, the maintenance of peace has indeed become a vital need for all mankind. We are convinced that if the governments of our countries, at one with the governments of other states which have displayed a realistic approach, firmly take to the road of elimination of hotbeds of international tension and of expansion of businesslike cooperation, the peoples everywhere will acclaim this as a great contribution to the strengthening of universal peace.”
