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Next morning Khrushchev delightedly awaited his first victory—the vote on the Soviet resolution to debate the colonial question in plenary session. But there were unexpected surprises ahead. Sekou Toure, young (38) President of Guinea, who has brought his country a long way toward the Communist camp, had not been in the Assembly the day before, but he had watched Khrushchev's antics on TV in his hotel room. What he saw shocked him. Canceling his plan to leave the U.S., Sekou Toure telephoned the U.N., asked permission to speak.
The Mission. Toure's speech in French was eloquent. He spoke directly to "the Rumanian delegate and the group to which he belongs," appealed for Communists to recognize that the U.N. ideal is "freedom, the right of every people to self-determination," and he demanded that the Communists should quit smothering the debate "with propaganda." The end of colonialism, said Toure, "is imperative and irreversible. Therefore, why not do it in an atmosphere of understanding and collaboration," instead of "trying to feed the fires of discontent and disturbance in this place and that, with the results we all know these troubles produce: mounting casualty lists, the engendering of hatred, deepening lack of understanding, and the digging of a grave for history." He prayed that U.N. action would demonstrate that "the General Assembly is located near a statue, the Statue of Liberty," which represents "not American liberty alone, but liberty for all peoples and all men."
The entire Assembly roared its applause. Toure was followed by Nepal's Rishikesh Shaha, who declared his concern over "all this sound and fury, all these ugly gestures." He warned that Asia and Africa would "not be bullied by gestures of superiority," which were "insulting to our intelligence."
Last Words. Khrushchev sobered. His final words were an apology. "Goodbye," he said. "I crave your indulgence for occasionally speaking out of turn. I offended the delegate from the Philippines. He offended me. He is an old parliamentarian and I am a young one. Nepal, too, gave us good lessons in parliamentarianism. By the way, is there a Parliament in Nepal? I will have to look it up in my geography book when I get home. But this is not relevant. Goodbye. Thank you."
The stunned and disbelieving Assembly watched him go. An Irish diplomat said, "He is a very difficult man to understand. I imagine it must be a trying experience for him to appear in this kind of a parliamentary body. He is used to making speeches to unanimous audiences which give him nothing but applause." Another neutral delegate added, "I suppose he really thought he could take the U.N. by storm, especially the uncommitted nations. But he ended up with a left-wing African publicly criticizing him, and the Assembly applauding the criticism."