The Nome Nugget

American Spy Plane Incident Changes Picture for Ike's Planned Russian Tour

Khrushchev 'Horrified' to Learn of Eisenhower's Approval of Spy Flight

MOSCOW (AP) - Soviet Premier Khrushchev said today the spy plane incident had changed his estimate of President Eisenhower and they will discuss in Paris whether the American leader should come to Moscow as planned.

He made the statement as he stood on a wicker chair talking to correspondents amidst the wreckage of the American plane he claims was shot down May 1 east of the Urals.

Khrushchev was asked: "Does this spy plane incident change your estimate of Eisenhower?"

"It does, of course," he replied. "I was not aware of the fact that the plan was not the caprice of an individual officer. I was horrified to learn that the President had approved the plan of these flights."

An American correspondent then asked whether, in view of his changed attitude toward Eisenhower, he would want him to postpone the visit to the Soviet Union now scheduled for June 10.

"I would not like to comment," the Premier said. "We can exchange views with the President on that in Paris."

Khrushchev spoke to newsmen in Gorky Park where the Russians displayed what they say is the wreckage and some of the personal belongings and equipment of Francis G. Powers, pilot of the American intruder jet.

Two wings of an aircraft were propped up as the exhibit's center piece. They appeared to be in almost perfect condition except for a series of small holes which looked like they were made by shrapnel.

Great twisted pieces of metal from the plane were also shown, along with the personal contents of Powers' wallet.

Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko condemned President Eisenhower's open skies plan, first advanced at the Geneva summit conference of 1955, as serving the interests of American military intelligence. He said the Russians naturally could not accept it.

The sky over the Soviet Union is closed, Gromyko said, and will remain closed.

Gromyko said newsmen would be allowed to see Powers only after the Soviet investigation has been completed.

Gromyko denounced Powers' May Day flight, which ended with his capture as a parachutist in the Sverdlovsk region, as a bandit-like provocation and a criminal act.

The foreign minister declared that any aircraft which "again dare to make a sortie into our borders will be smashed to smithereens." He reiterated that bases of nations used for espionage flights over Soviet territory will be obliterated.

FORMAL ATTIRE