No ColdWar thaw after Soviet supremo’s icy visit to United States
SEPTEMBER 15, 1959
It was at the height of the Cold War, when the nuclear-armed Soviet Union and United States faced up to each other in a deadly stand off.
Amid a mounting crisis over the fate of Berlin, US President Dwight Eisenhower invited Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to a summit at Camp David.
Khrushchev accepted but, rather than a formal visit lasting a couple of days and concluding with a sterile photocall, the Soviet leader said he would also like to travel around the country.
Reluctantly – and not quite sure what he was letting the country in for – Eisenhower agreed and on September 15 1959 Khrushchev, his wife, grown-up children Sergei, Yulia and Rada, and son-in-law Alexey arrived for a 13-day visit.
This was unprecedented, as it was not usual for Soviet officials to travel domestically or internationally with their families.
The party visited Washington and New York, before flying to California, and Hollywood.
Reaction to the invitation was mixed, with hundreds of Americans bombarding Congress with angry letters and telegrams of protest, while hundreds of others wrote to Soviet Embassy with friendly pleas that Khrushchev visit their home or their town or county fair.
A few days before the premier’s scheduled arrival, the Soviets launched a missile that crashed into the Moon. The stakes were suddenly higher.
Khrushchev’s tour provided plenty of soundbites on his view of life in the US – few of them flattering.
At a farm in Maryland, he petted a pig and complained it was too fat, then grabbed a turkey and complained it was too small.
In Manhattan, Khrushchev argued with capitalists, yelled at hecklers, shadowboxed with Governor Nelson Rockefeller, got stuck in an elevator in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and toured the Empire State Building, which failed to impress him.
“If you’ve seen one skyscraper,” he said, “you’ve seen them all.”
On the fifth day, the Khrushchev carnival flew to Hollywood – where things got really surreal.
Actors including Gary Cooper – who the Khrushchevs, fans of Westerns, had heard of, along with Tony Curtis, Janet Leigh and Marylin Monroe were on hand to greet them. A few actors refused to attend the reception – most notably future president Ronald Reagan.
Twentieth Century Fox had invited Khrushchev to watch the filming of Can-Can, a risque musical starring Frank Sinatra and Shirley MacLaine, and had laid on a full-length rendition of the famous dance.
The film got free worldwide publicity, but Khrushchev was not impressed. When asked what he thought of Can-Can, he replied: “The face of humanity is prettier than its backside” before later describing it as “decadent bourgeois pornography.”
But the Soviet leader clearly did want to visit Disneyland, and was annoyed when this was cancelled amid security concerns.
While he criticised much about America, one thing did impress him. After visiting IBM in San Jose, he expressed little interest in computers but liked the self-service cafeteria, which he introduced to the USSR on his return home.