CALENDAR     

October 11, 1960 8:00 AM

Nothing auspicious about this date except that I begin it by writing a sentence or two in my journal. Since returning from Europe on Sept. 17 I seem not to have been able to add entries. Keeping a journal is always difficult, but my mistake here was rather mechanically psychological, I believe, in that I let myself feel, that it was necessary to catch up on missed entries from aborad before noting current thoughts. In addition, I was swamped with duties and courtesies of all kinds on my return.

October 12, 1960

With a delegate's pass from Nepal, I sat briefly in the Assembly of the UN this afternoon, hearing the least minutes of Khruschshev' speech urging the group to take up a Soviet Resolution "to free all colonies now." He sat down a few benches away, flanked by Gromyko. K. is a ruddy, stocky man with tiny eyes, a humorous, shrewd street-urchin toughness in his expression. He attended the speeches in all seriousness. What does he expect? That the UN will be packed w/ attentive delegates like the Supreme Soviet when he is there? That the UN, like other parliamentary assemblages of the Western world, must be frivolous & insignificant to judge the way the delegates read papers, wander about, and absent themselves? If so he is wrong. After I left excitement began to mount.

The communists heckled & harangued. The Rumanian delegate hysterically denounced attempts to deny the sovereignty of the satellites. The Filipino delegate began to speak on the resolution, saying how his nation had suffered Spanish & U. S. Imperialism & was now free. K. interrupted him. There was a great racket & confusion. K. denounced the Philippines as a tool & colony of the U.S. When the Filipino finally was able to finish, he supported the Soviet position! The startled communists applauded. K. corrected his earlier rudeness & said the F. had seemed to be taking another course. More proof of how the Soviets believe their own propaganda re colonialism. They couldn't imagine the USA turning loose a country and letting it vote vs. the U. S. position!

Then shouts filled the hall as others spoke. K. attracted attention during the protests and shouts by taking off his shoes and pounding them on his desk. Finally when the Chairman, Boland of Ireland, ruled an irrelevant speaker out of order & the people referred to Ireland as a colony, B broke his gavel on the podium and in disgust & dismay called the session adjourned. For half an hour the delegates milled around before departing. Stephanie Neuman told me of these later events after my lectures, while I ate chop suey at a Chinese restaurant on 8th & MacDougall Sts. I had had to leave the UN to visit Bernard Neuman, Chairman of the Rep. Party of Manhattan, for a few minutes. I also met Joe Ruggiero at the Roosevelt, and then went to my classes on the Square. S. also told me that she had read several of my poems to a small party at her home the night before and that they were well received. The first audience of any kind. Saw Stephanie to the subway on 14th and 6th Avenue. It was a cool pleasant night, and then walked home to the flat.