Oct. 15, 1962 - Premier Ahmed Ben Bella (pictured at microphone) of Algeria received today a Washington welcome on the White House lawn with a 21-gun salute, an Army band, and a warm greeting. He also received President Kennedy’s assurances of support. The visit was the high point of Mr. Ben Bella’s crowded nine-day introduction to the U.S. and the United Nations. Throughout his visit, in public and in private, Mr. Ben Bella stressed Algeria’s pressing economic problems, her “nonalignment” and “anti-colonialism” in foreign policy and “socialism” in domestic policy. Tomorrow, the 44-year-old Algerian Premier, in office less than a month, is scheduled to fly to Havana at the invitation of Premier Fidel Castro. Mr. Ben Bella has privately emphasized that he is not taking sides in the Cuba-U.S. dispute, nor is he acting as mediator. At the White House ceremonies, Mr. Ben Bella noted approvingly that President Kennedy, as a Senator, endorsed self-rule for Algeria in 1957, causing considerable controversy at the time.
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