HOW THE NEWS HIT WASHINGTON - WITH SOME REACTIONS OVERSEAS

In the wake of Gagarin's ride, friends and critics of the U.S. around the world - like those below - took a new look at its technology. So did the Administration, as reported here from Washington.

By Hugh Sidey
TIME-LIFE CORRESPONDENT

Sitting in the presidential box during the opening game of the new baseball season on April 10, John F. Kennedy was interrupted for a most important piece of information. There were strong rumors coming out of Moscow, an aide whispered, that the Soviets h ad orbited a man and recovered him.

The President showed no sign of surprise. Only a week earlier his intelligence and space experts had warned him this might happen within days. Braced for dim tidings, Mr. Kennedy turned back to baseball and his hot dog.

Next day, as the rumors rose, the Administration got ready for the inevitable Soviet announcement, even though the best high-level information was that there had been no manned space shot yet. White House Press Secretary Pierre Salinger and his colleagues put together a statement for the President to use when the news broke. At 6 o'clock that evening Kennedy's top science adviser, Dr. Jerome Wiesner, told the President he believed the Russian shot would come during the night. At 8 o'clock the President wa s asked if he wanted to be awakened with the expected news. "No," Mr. Kennedy answered. "Give me the news in the morning."

EGYPTIAN YOUTH Nabil Rashad says, "I never thought space attempts would come to such an astounding result. . . . The Americans are licked."	INDIAN CAB DRIVER, Lashkar Singh declares India will in time send up a cosmona ut too. "We are not a lesser nation than Russia. We will do it.	JAPANESE STUDENT, leftist Hazumi Maeda, exults, "I knew Russia would do it firs t. Socialistic science is superior to that of the western nations."