was shocked by the assassination and blamed it on a right-wing conspiracy to overthrow the government, invade Cuba, and start World War III. The KGB began investigating the new President Johnson, who it believed was responsible for the assassination. First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev and Chairman Leonid Brezhnev sent letters of condolence to Johnson stating, "The villainous assassination of Head of the American State John F. Kennedy is a grievous, indeed a very grievous loss for your country. I want to say frankly that the gravity of this loss is felt by the whole world, including ourselves, the Soviet people" and called the assassination "a heavy blow to all people who hold dear the cause of peace and Soviet-American cooperation." At U.S. embassies and consulates around the world, switchboards lit up and were flooded with phone calls. At many of them, shocked personnel let telephones go unanswered. They later opened up condolence books for people to sign. In Europe, the assassination tempered Cold War sentiment, as people on both sides expressed shock and sorrow. News of Kennedy's assassination reached Asia during the early morning hours of November 23, 1963, because of the time difference. In Japan, the news became the first television broadcast from the United States to Japan via the Relay 1 satellite, instead of a prerecorded message from Kennedy to the Japanese people. (Back in the U.S. where it was still November 22, the cancelled broadcast of Kennedy's message was shown on NBC-TV's Huntley-Brinkley Report). Hostile Hostile reactions to the late President Kennedy were registered from far-right elements. In the South, where Kennedy was not popular because of his position on civil rights, some isolated incidents occurred, where some expressed joy to the death of Kennedy: schools in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and suburbs of Dallas itself. President of the Memphis Citizens Council Richard Ely told the Nashville White Citizens Council that "I firmly believe Mr. Kennedy died a tyrant's death. He did not set back communism. He encouraged integration, which has the support of communism. He was a tyrant", causing half of the room, some were Peabody College professors, to leave after they unsuccessfully demanded Ely to provide evidence for his claims. In Biloxi, Mississippi, student Thomas Hansen was thrown across the front glass door after protesting against the banners of celebration of the local section of the John Birch Society before being hit with ultimately abandoned charges of