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Khrushchev baited his trap with the most abject apology any Communist leader ever made. Tito's ejection from the Cominform was a terrible mistake, said Khrushchev. "We sincerely regret what happened, and resolutely reject the things which occurred, one after the other, during that period." He produced a scapegoat. The trouble, he said, all came because of "the provocative role which was played in the relations between Yugoslavia and the U.S.S.R. by enemies of the people—Beria, Abakumov and others—who have been unmasked." (Beria and Abakumov, tidily removed by execution, are always useful on such occasions.)
Nikita Khrushchev continued: "We have thoroughly studied the materials on which the serious charges and insults directed against the leaders of Yugoslavia were based. The facts testify that these materials were fabricated by enemies of the people. For our part, we are ready to do everything necessary to eliminate all obstacles."
Silent Rejoinder. At this point in his incredible performance, Khrushchev glanced at Tito to see how he was reacting. Tito stood with his hand thrust into his blouse in a Napoleonic pose, the corners of his mouth turned slightly downward, his eyes nearly closed.
On the face of it, this seemed to be a promise that all was forgiven, come home at once. If Tito was the devoted Communist he professed to be, what more could he ask? Khrushchev gilded his poisoned apple. The Soviet bases its relations, he went on reading, on "principles of equality, nonintervention and respect for sovereignty. The desire of Yugoslavia to maintain relations with all states both of the West and in the East has met with complete understanding on our part." Then Khrushchev returned to the theme his "Comrade", opening had set. "We consider it desirable to have mutual confidence established between our parties which base their activities on teachings of Marxism-Leninism," and companionably proposed that the two make common cause "to throw off the capitalistic yoke."
Khrushchev stepped back expectantly, offered Tito the microphone for reply. Tito, poker-faced, impassively motioned Khrushchev toward the waiting cars. Obviously startled, Khrushchev docilely acquiesced. Through crowds chanting: "Ti-to. Tito, Ti-to," the cavalcade of Rolls-Royces, Cadillacs, Packards, Buicks and Mercedes Benzes sped to a constrained tea at Tito's White Palace.
Obviously, in his first hour on Yugoslav soil, Khrushchev had badly overreached himself. Anxious lest any Westerners get the wrong ideas. Yugoslav officials spent the next two days buttonholing newsmen to announce how outraged, how embarrassed, how annoyed they were at what Khrushchev proposed.
"We have no desire for ideological ties with the Soviet Union any more than we want ideological ties with the U.S.," said one official. Nor was any Yugoslav pleased by Khrushchev's transparent ruse of making Beria the scapegoat. Said a Tito official: "You can't treat history like a detective story. It's an insult to the Yugoslav people to think they would swallow this."