In January 1961, two speeches vied for world headlines. The first was made in secret on 6 January to a select group of Soviet propagandists and released to the press twelve days later. In it Nikita Khrushchev formally declared his intention to extend the Communist revolution and sponsor “wars of National Liberation” around the world. He spoke intending to pull Mao's China into line, but his words terrified the United States. The second speech was delivered in public, a little after noon on 20 January, on the steps of the Capitol in Washington, DC. In it the newly inaugurated President John F. Kennedy matched the Soviet Union with a global commitment of his own, to “pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” Mutually alarmed, Soviet and American propagandists broadcast these words around the globe. An ideological duel followed, fought in the newspapers, classrooms, airwaves, and cinema screens of the developing world. The USIA sat at its heart.