"I invited myself!" - With such headlines, the American media dubbed N. S. Khrushchevâs first visit to the United States. The date in world diplomacy is outstanding, since no one could even imagine then that anything like this could happen. The USA and the USSR are the number one enemies at that time, ready to destroy each other with nuclear strikes at any moment. Khrushchevâs visit to the United States (1959) can be briefly described in one phrase: the one-man theater, in which Nikita Sergeyevich played his main role in front of an American audience. We will tell in our article more about how this happened.
US-USSR Relations on the Eve of the Visit
The modern reader may not even understand what N. Khrushchevâs first visit to the USA was. Year - 1959, shortly before that, at the Twentieth Congress of the CPSU in 1953, the inevitability of the next world war was announced.
In 1956, the USSR announced a new military doctrine - the massive use of nuclear missile potential during hostilities.
In 1957, our country was the first in the world to experience a ballistic intercontinental missile. The event is simply horrendously grandiose for the whole world as a whole and for the USA in particular: Americans live on another continent, they are geographically isolated from the rest of the world, their army and navy reliably protect them from any aggression, the shock from Pearl Harbor is survived, conclusions are drawn, ordinary Americans after the victory in World War II are confident that no one else in the world can threaten their security. Yes, the USSR and the USA have nuclear weapons that can destroy the whole world, but they are in the form of huge bombs with the devastating effect of defeat. These bombs still need to be delivered by air to the US borders and dropped there. An effective American air defense system, located at naval bases in the United States, consisted of missile systems, ships, aircraft carriers, fighters, etc. It seemed impossible to drop a nuclear bomb on the Americans. And here are the headlines in all the newspapers that a huge rocket appeared in the USSR, capable of striking from anywhere in the world in the center of New York, flying at an altitude inaccessible to air defense. It turns out that the American defense shield, created over many years, will not save the United States from aggression. The capitalist countries were plunged into a state of panic fear of the threat of âcrazy Russians,â as the Western press of that time called us.
And at this terrible time for the Western world, a message was published stating that Khrushchevâs first friendly visit to the United States would happen soon. This date was celebrated as a holiday that gave hope to millions of Americans that maybe the Russians are not so âcrazyâ as the press before, and that they will not destroy the West with a single nuclear strike from ballistic missiles.
Invitation
Khrushchevâs first visit to the United States was due to the invitation of US President Eisenhower. The latter knew that the Soviet leader was interested in Western culture and the economy, since even then the USSR was lagging behind the United States.
The demonization of the Soviet Union by Western media took place a little ahead of time. In the first years of his reign, Khrushchev tried to get along with the capitalist countries, he wanted to "live peacefully with them." However, the Secretary General did not exclude the possibility of a new world war, since he was far from stupid and remembered the lessons of history, as well as the insidiousness of Western diplomacy.
Purpose of the invitation
President Eisenhower wanted to regulate the status of Berlin, as the Soviet leadership was no longer going to endure the "occupation zones" in this city. From the Soviet zone of Germany they created a new state, the GDR, with the capital in Berlin. Our leadership did not want to tolerate the âpresence of capitalistsâ in this city. In the spring and summer of 1959, negotiations were held by the foreign ministers in Geneva, but they ended to no avail.
A personal invitation to Khrushchevâs visit to the United States was brought from America by the Deputy Prime Minister of the USSR Frol Kozlov, who went there to open the Soviet exhibition.
âI admit, at first I did not even believe it. Our relations were so strained that an invitation on a friendly visit to the head of the Soviet government and the first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee was simply unbelievable! â - recalled Nikita Sergeevich subsequently.
The American press also could not believe it, but soon there were details that put everything in its place: President Eisenhower instructed State Murphy Department member Robert Murphy to convey to Kozlov an invitation to visit Khrushchev in the United States. A prerequisite for the visit was to become that the USSR leader would agree to the Geneva agreements on the future status of Berlin on American terms. However, Murphy forgot to mention this condition, and Khrushchev unexpectedly even for Eisenhower himself accepted the invitation.
If you translate these actions from a diplomatic language into the usual one, you get the following: the Americans had to keep their zone in Berlin, but in Geneva our diplomats rejected all their offers. After that, the US leader himself tried to negotiate with Khrushchev, making a supposedly wide gesture to our secretary general, inviting him on a friendly visit. In the context of the upcoming Cold War, such an invitation should be rejected, but nonetheless, some kind of detente should come. However, Khrushchev was distinguished by unpredictability and expressiveness both in domestic politics and in foreign. He accepted this invitation with the words: "Well, then I will stay there a week or two." Eisenhower had no choice but to agree to this.
How to ensure security?
Khrushchev's upcoming visit to the United States turned out to be a real headache for the Soviet special services. They knew how to ensure the safety of top officials within friendly countries and in the Union itself. But what to do in a hostile country where any lane can be a dangerous place? They did not know this, since there was no corresponding experience.
Some members of the Soviet delegation wanted to ask the Americans to put up trellises of armed American soldiers along the route of Khrushchev from the military airfield to the designated residence.
Others objected, since this measure would not save the attempt if Western politicians decided to kill the leader of the USSR. In the end, they decided that they should completely trust the security of the American intelligence services and believe the assurances of their politicians about security.
How to get to the USA?
This is a flight from one country to another today is considered commonplace, and half a century ago there were no such aircraft in our country that would be able to make a flight from the USA to the USSR without refueling. And it was necessary at all costs to show the West that our country has the latest technology. Therefore, we decided to travel by TU-114, the only model at that time capable of making a non-stop flight from our country to Washington. The problem was that the model had not yet been tested, so no one could guarantee the safety of the first persons of the state, except for one person - model designer Andrei Tupolev. He guaranteed the reliability of the aircraft and, as evidence of his words, proposed including his own son Alexei in the crew. The choice was made in favor of the Tu-114.
Why did Khrushchev agree to the trip?
For what reason did Khrushchev visit the United States? Why did the Soviet leader agree to the trip? In fact, Khrushchev was confident in the advantages of the socialist system and believed that a historic victory over capitalism was not far off. A state doctrine has already been developed, according to which "communism will come in this generation." The inscriptions about the imminent approach of âparadiseâ were even hollowed out on stones and monuments. But as it always happens, this doctrine was not destined to come true, and all the inscriptions were hastily erased in the eighties of the last century. However, then they still did not know about it, and the Soviet leader wanted to see the âdecaying Westâ with his own eyes.
Secretary General as a spy?
Some are inclined to believe that Khrushchevâs visit to the United States was intended to âspyâ on a competing system, as it became clear on an intuitive level that the West was beginning to be ahead of us technologically. Eastern Europe already understood this one hundred percent, and in 1956 there was an uprising in Hungary against the communist regime. Proponents of the âplagiarism ideaâ cite the argument that Khrushchev did not pay attention to inventions that Western politicians showed him, and tried to âpeepâ something âsecretâ, as he believed that the things shown by the Americans were not of particular interest. So, our leader "found out the secret" of a hamburger, hot dog, self-service service, cells for storing things at the airport and at the station and corn.
All this appeared later in the Soviet Union. For ideological reasons, the hamburger and hot dog were renamed âsausage in the doughâ and âcutlet in the doughâ, and Soviet people were sure that we came up with this. And our leader finally âfell in loveâ with corn, thinking that he had finally found Eldorado, the secret to the success of the capitalist world at a farm in Iowa. It was âcorn historyâ during the trip that created the myth that Khrushchev allegedly decided there to experiment with this culture. In fact, there was talk of a massive agricultural campaign for growing corn before the trip. Khrushchev himself liked to call himself a âcorn growerâ even before he was appointed to the highest leadership position in the country and often introduced various projects for the mass introduction of this culture. The reason for this âloveâ for this vegetable was that in 1949 corn saved the Ukrainian Soviet Republic from another âfamineâ when Khrushchev was the partyâs general secretary in this republic. In the remaining regions of the USSR, famine nevertheless occurred due to crop failure and lack of reserves. However, Khrushchevâs visit to the USA in 1959 finally rooted in him the belief that this culture urgently needed to be introduced into the USSR. Later, our agriculture paid dearly for experiments with this vegetable, and Soviet people cursed the Secretary General in the kitchen, chewing corn bread instead of wheat bread. In fairness, letâs say that today the Russian Ministry of Agriculture approved Nikita Khrushchevâs experiments on introducing corn into the national economy, as it increases the productivity of meat and dairy farming. But he also admits that "you donât need to, of course, plant the whole country with corn."
First surprise
Khrushchev's visit to the United States took place in 1959 and was accompanied by various curiosities. Sometimes it turned out that the Soviet leader, while trying to discern the secrets of the West and at the same time show him his cultural superiority, put himself in an awkward position.
At the IBM factory, our leader remained indifferent to the products, showing with his whole appearance that we also have all this. Recall that in 1959 the first computers in the world appeared on a transistor of a high level of reliability and speed, which the US Air Force found it possible to use even in an early warning air defense system. Khrushchev was not particularly impressed, since work on improving the computer was carried out in our country as well, and the corn-mill could not understand the revolutionary innovation due to the lack of elementary knowledge in this area. It was this invention that allowed IBM to become a world leader in the manufacture of computer technology.
But Khrushchev was impressed by another invention - self-service in the dining room. Of course, the secretary general did not like to show his surprise and constantly maintained that "it is better in the USSR." However, many understood that Khrushchev was cunning.
In hollywood
Khrushchev's visit to the United States in 1959 was marked by his appearance in Hollywood. The film company âXX Century Foxâ arranged a magnificent lunch for 400 seats in honor of our leader. The excitement was such that only celebrities were invited to it without their soul mates, as there was not enough space for everyone.
Hollywood at that time was traumatized by the âwitch huntâ - the fight against the propaganda of communism in the United States, so many guests were embarrassed. However, almost all famous actors, directors, politicians, playwrights, etc. took part in the lunch: Bob Hope, Frances Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, John F. Kennedy and many others.
Some, for example, Bing Crosby and Ronald Reagan, in protest against the socialist regime, defiantly rejected the invitation. Others were simply afraid for their fate and did not go to a meeting, since they were already being investigated by a commission on anti-American activities. Among such people was the famous playwright Arthur Miller, but his wife Marilyn Monroe was especially introduced to the Soviet leader.
Khrushchev on the set of the film
After lunch, the guests decided to show the shooting of the film âKankanâ. The organizers specifically chose a particularly piquant fragment of the future motion picture. Dancers ran to the loud music and began to dance spectacularly, raising their skirts high. Later, journalists did not miss the opportunity to ask the Soviet leader what he thinks about such scenes. Our leader called such a genre âobsceneâ, and he allegedly did not fix his attention on them. However, photographs of journalists suggest the opposite.
At a meeting with trade union organizations, Khrushchev will nevertheless express his indignation at the fact that âhonest artistsâ should âpull up their skirtsâ to please a âspoiled audienceâ. And then our leader did not miss the opportunity to emphasize that âwe do not need suchâ freedom âand weâ prefer to think freely ârather thanâ look at our asses â. However, the Soviet leader did not calm down on this either: he began to parody the dancers from the film, exposing his ass for all to see. At least, one of the American journalists wrote about this - Saul Bellow, who covered the visit of Khrushchev to the USA. The year was really memorable for him, and he often recalled these events throughout his life.
N. Khrushchev's visit to the USA: meeting with trade unions
A real disappointment for our leader was a meeting with trade union organizations in the United States. He suggested that he would meet with his allies in the struggle against the capitalist world. Well, someone, and simple "hard workers" must hate "oppressors and enslavers." However, he was mistaken: the leader of the largest trade union association, Walter Reiter, criticized the entire socialist system of the USSR. Khrushchev tried to fend off and accused him of âbetraying the working class,â but Reiter told Nikita Sergeyevich directly in the face that he was not fighting for socialism in the country at all, but only for improving the lives of workers.
Later, upon seeing Reiterâs income, Khrushchev will hint that the capitalists bribed all the union leaders in the United States.
"Dead dead cat"
In general, Khrushchevâs visit to the United States (1959) was accompanied by numerous provocations, irony, sarcasm from the American public. The most unpleasant questions for our leader were those that affected the Hungarian uprising. He described them as "dead cat", hinting that these events are long gone, and journalists still raise this topic.
Second trip
Khrushchevâs first visit to the USA is, of course, a memorable date, but this wasnât the only trip of our leader to âideological enemiesâ. It would seem that after our leader in the USA suffered in 1959, he is unlikely to go there again. However, in 1960, he spoke at the 15th General Assembly at the UN in New York, at which he criticized the capitalist expansion of the West in Africa. On it, he promised to show the whole world "Kuzkinâs mother." The frightened Americans translated this phrase âwe will bury youâ, and the Soviet leader in the eyes of the Western world turned into an inadequate dictator, ready to destroy the whole world. After this, another planned friendly visit of Khrushchev to the United States (1961) did not take place, and the idiom âKuzkina motherâ began to mean the thermonuclear âTsar bombâ that the USSR experienced after the General Assembly.