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The two carried their running debate on to a reception that Kozlov held for Nixon at the Soviet embassy. Kozlov suggested that the supermarket and shopping area he had visited was strictly a showcase for his benefit. Not so, said Nixon. Besides, he added, did not the Russians bring their prettiest girls to model at the New York exhibit? Kozlov admitted that Nixon had a point. Speaking of markets, the Vice President mentioned that he himself was the son of a California grocer and was reared in a modest economic background. In turn, Kozlov confided a rare item of autobiography: "I was one of nine children. Five of them died in childhood because of a lack of enough to eat. Two were killed in the war. There is only my sister and myself left."
Piety in the Sky. Kozlov was on hand at 6:30 next morning, more chipper than the night before, to board his chartered airliner for a lunch date with California's Governor Edmund G. Brown in Sacramento. He slept during much of the trip but managed to rouse himself long enough to hold an airborne press conference. First crack out of the box, Hearst Reporter David Sentner asked Kozlov why Khrushchev did not curb subversive activities of U.S. Communists. The question seemed to shock Ambassador Menshikov, but not Kozlov. Said he blandly: "Our country never interferes in the internal affairs of any country, even the smallest, certainly not such a mighty country as the United States."
When Kozlov was asked to comment on anti-Semitism in the U.S.S.R., Menshikov again could only smile weakly. Kozlov, who gained a reputation as an anti-Semite during the "doctors' plot," seemed offended. "I have many friends of Jewish nationality," said he. Among them: a Leningrad rabbi, various Soviet officials, the wife of "President Voroshilov who unfortunately died recently. God give it that the Jews should live such a life in any other country as in the Soviet Union. They live better in the Soviet Union than in Israel." Just then the pilot sent back word that too many people were in the tail section; the conference broke up, and Kozlov resumed his nap.
Kozlov bounded off the plane in Sacramento, was given a cream-colored Stetson that was too big for him, posed with two beauty queens, one of whom was a Negro ("Note her California tan," said Brown). Seeing a map illustrating California's big plans for a statewide water system (TIME, June 29), Kozlov observed: "Socialism is helping capitalism." Replied "Pat" Brown quickly: "We don't call it that." Later, Roman Catholic
Brown called Kozlov's attention to Pope John's encyclical on peace, issued last week (see RELIGION). Declared Kozlov: "We will even support the Pope if he is for peace."