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On October 17, 1961, at the opening of the 22nd Communist Party Congress in Moscow, leader of the Communist Party Congress in Moscow in 1961 Nikita Khrushchev made the following announcement: "The tests of new nuclear weapons are proceeding successfully. We shall probably complete these by 30 or 31 October by a blast of fifty megatons." As if the undercurrent of a myth was moving through Khrushchev's words-a myth which continues to be relived in the U.S. on Halloween-the U.S. reaction to Khrushchev's speech, as faithfully reported by the Press, was mainly expressed in terms of Halloween and the myth attached to it.

This article focuses on the Halloween of the year 1963. On Halloween 1963 the world was confronted with the U.S. - Soviet Union clash and a showdown at Berlin, East Germany. Also with a call for war in Algeria, which became an undeclared border war. Then the New York Herald Tribune of October 12, 1963 spoke of `the treacherous October tidings pushing the United States and Russia in an eyeball con&ontation that could lead to conflict'. On October 23, 1963 the same New York Herald Tribune had the following heading: `On anniversary of missiles crisis gun play on high seas of Cuba.' The same issue contained a cartoon where U.S. President John F. Kennedy was riding through the sky on a broom,clad as a witch.