September 10, 1959
CHINA-INDIA: London, 9 – The Soviet Union in an announcement released by the semi-official Tass news agency, has called on Communist China and India to settle their border dispute peacefully. The Soviet mediation coincided with a letter that was released today, from Red Chinese Prime Minister Chou En Lai to his Indian counterpart Jawaharlal Nehru proposing an amicable settlement. However the arguments he presented indicate an unwillingness to recognize the McMahon Line as the international boundary between the two countries and once again the Chinese premier charges that India has hostile intentions, claiming that Indian troops invaded Chinese territory and seized Longju. It is not known whether this two-pronged «peace offensive» from Moscow and Peking indicates a gradual withdrawal from aggression or is simply a diplomatic maneuver on the eve of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev’s visit to the United States. INTERCONTINENTAL ‘ATLAS’: Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, 9 – The first intercontinental «Atlas D» ballistic missile was launched today, putting the United States in a position to attack almost any part of the earth from its military bases in friendly countries.
