The 1964 Presidential Elections Through Soviet Eyes
| Author | Morton Schwartz |
| Published date | 01 December 1966 |
| Date | 01 December 1966 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/106591296601900405 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
663
THE
1964
PRESIDENTIAL
ELECTIONS
THROUGH
SOVIET
EYES
MORTON
SCHWARTZ
University
of
California,
Riverside
HE
1964
American
presidential
elections
were
a
source
of
great
concern
in
t
most
world
capitals.
Nowhere
was
this
concern
more
evident
than
in
.
Moscow.
The
Soviet
leaders
were
evidently
quite
anxious
about
the
results
of
the
Johnson-Goldwater
race
and
indicated
no
little
satisfaction
with
the
final
results.
According
to
Leonid
1.
Brezhnev,
First
Secretary
of
the
Soviet
Communist
party,
President
Johnson’s
victory
represented
a
victory
of
the
forces of
good
over
the
adherents
of
&dquo;the
policy
of
adventurism
and
reaction.&dquo;’
The
partisan
attitude
taken
by
the
Soviet
leaders
toward
the
1964
elections
was
quite
unusual.
Traditionally,
the
men
in
the
Kremlin
regard
American
elec-
toral
practices
and
procedures
as
mere
exercises
in
political
casuistry.
The
affairs
of
the
United
States,
it is
argued,
are
not
managed
by
the
President
and
the
Con-
gress
but
by
the
&dquo;ruling
circles&dquo;
in
Wall
Street.
The
&dquo;real
power&dquo;
in
this
country
is
said
to
be
concentrated
in
the
hands
of
a
small
group
of
enormously
powerful
cor-
porations.
Democracy
in
America,
therefore,
is
a
sham.
As
Khrushchev
himself
declared
in
1959,
&dquo;for
them
democracy
is
the
opportunity
to
engage
in
glittering
parliamentary
oratory,
to
play
at
political
deals
among
the
parties,
to
set
up
a
’flowery
screen’
of
free
elections
behind
which
capital
is
omnipotent
and
the
workers
are
actually
deprived
of
their
rights.&dquo;2
Viewed
through
the
prism
of
Marxist-Leninist
doctrine,
the
purposes
and
policies
of
the
two
American
bourgeois
parties
are
identical.
Both
the
Democrats
and
the
Republicans
are
said
to
represent
the
interests
of
monopoly
capitalism.
Elections
are
simply
regarded
as
the
struggle
between
competing
groups
of
mono-
polists
or
their
representatives.
According
to
Khrushchev,
&dquo;the
only
thing
that
changes
in
the
governments
of
the
imperialist
states
is
the
personalities;
some
mil-
lionaires
take
the
place
of
others,
but
all
of
them work
in
the
interests
of
the
monopolies.&dquo;3
Thus,
commenting
on
the
1960
election
campaign
then
in
progress,
Khrushchev
observed
that
both
John
Kennedy
and
Richard
Nixon
were
&dquo;servants
of
monopoly
capital
so
there
is
no
choice
for
us
here.&dquo;
4
NOTE:
This
article
was
prepared
with
the
assistance
of
a
University
of
California
Intramural
Research Grant.
1
Pravda,
November
7,
1964.
This
article
is
based
on
Soviet
analyses
made
during
and
im-
mediately
after
the
election
campaign.
Since
the
expansion
of
the
war
in
Vietnam
in
February
1965,
Soviet
assessments
of
President
Johnson
have,
not
surprisingly,
become
rather
more
somber
and
pessimistic.
See,
for
example,
Dvizhushchie
sily
vneshnei
politiki
SShA
[The
Underlying
Forces
of
the
Foreign
Policy
of
the
USA]
(Moscow:
Nauka
Publishing
House,
1965).
2
Vneocherednoi
XXI
s’ezd
Kommunisticheskoi
Partii
Sovetskogo
Soyuza.
Stenagraficheskii
otchet
(Moscow,
1959), I,
103.
3
XXII
s’ezd
Kommunisticheskoi
Partii
Sovetskogo
Soyuza.
Stenagraficheskii
otchet
(Moscow,
1961),I,214.
4
Pravda,
August
30,
1964.
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