Original subtitles

What was life like in the USA during the 1950s?

For the majority, it was great.

It was a prosperous decade with unprecedented economic growth and the

unemployment rate at an all-time low.

The post-war boom was a time of family values, conformity, religious awakening,

and consumerism.

In short, life was good, simple, and highly materialistic.

But as always, there was a fly in the ointment.

Communism, which hung over American happiness like an ominous shadow.

Mr. Hoover, some people are saying today that communism is no longer a danger to

our country. What is your opinion about that?

Senator, I think that communism is as serious a menace to the United States as

it ever was, if not more so.

Because today you have in charge of the Communist Party a hardcore, fanatical

group of members who are dedicated to the overthrow of our government by force

and violence.

The Communist Party itself is a part of an international criminal conspiracy for

the destruction of the American way of life. It's headed up into Moscow by

Nikita Khrushchev.

By the end of the 1950s, for the average American, Nikita Khrushchev was public

enemy number one.

Not that average Americans knew much about him, but what they did know was

enough for them to make up their minds.

In their eyes, Nikita Khrushchev... was the ruler of the biggest country of the

world the communist soviet union he hated god america and americans

and he was getting ready for an all-out nuclear war against the united states

for americans mr k as the american media often called him was the devil incarnate

and then the unthinkable happened

In a special White House conference, President Eisenhower reads the text of a

joint announcement released simultaneously in Moscow.

The President of the United States has invited Mr.

Nikito Khrushchev, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, to pay

an official visit to the United States in September.

Mr. Kirchhoff will visit Washington for two or three days, and will also spend

ten days or so traveling in the United States.

As in Moscow, Khrushchev was boarding the plane that was to take him to the

USA. Last minute preparations were taking place at the White House.

Every little detail of K's day-to-day itinerary was meticulously thought

through. Overall, the American plan was pretty straightforward.

First, a ten-day long road trip across the country, showcasing the best America

had to offer.

The idea behind this was very simple.

America's greatness, wealth and strength were supposed to stun and overwhelm the

Soviet leader.

Thus, by the end of the trip, during talks with President Eisenhower at Camp

David, An overly impressed Khrushchev was supposed to be much easier to

negotiate with, and at least some of the major Cold War issues would finally be

solved in favor of the United States.

Khrushchev's agenda for the upcoming trip, on the other hand, was an exact

opposite of the American one.

He was not to be amazed at any cost, not to look weak under any circumstances,

and also to make a good impression.

to show the human face of communism, so to say.

Here is how he would remember his feelings during the flight in his audio

memoirs.

Our relations with the United States at the time were cold and tense, so the

upcoming two weeks did feel like an important test for me. Because in

politics, especially in diplomacy, proper balance is everything.

If you talk too softly, your enemy will stop respecting you.

If you talk too loudly, on the other hand, you can end up shitting your own

pants. And this was not just any country. This was America, our most

powerful adversary.

Khrushchev wanted to use every step of the trip to his advantage.

A good example would be the fact that on his orders, the Soviet delegation was

traveling on a huge ultra-modern plane, the Tu-114, the only passenger jet in

the world.

capable of flying non-stop from Moscow to Washington.

The Russians had only one operational Tu-114, and it was Khrushchev's pride

and joy.

But just before the flight, cracks were discovered in its engines, and it was

deemed unsafe to fly.

Khrushchev's advisers begged him to take a different plane and fly with a

stopover, but Khrushchev ignored their pleas.

He wanted to impress the Americans at any cost.

even if that involved risking his life and the lives of everyone on board.

But luckily for everyone, the plane made it to America in one piece.

And by the time it started its descent over Washington, all four major

participants of the upcoming grandiose Cold War roadshow were ready.

Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, American President Dwight D. Eisenhower,

the American people, and the free-spirited American media, which

would play an...

unexpected role over the course of the next two weeks.

Our entire two-hour program this morning is given over to a man whose name I'll

bet you can't spell.

Can you?

We made a little survey and found that not one out of 20 people can spell

Khrushchev's name.

Try it right now. How do you spell it?

Well, it's K-H-R-U-S-H-C-H-E-V.

In profile.

Nikita Khrushchev, a profile we're looking at more closely than ever

before. Trying to see what it tells us about this man who is now at the height

of his power.

A short, relatively fat man who hardly fits our image of what the most powerful

dictator in the world should be.

How did this bulky fellow with the rotund face that might be that of a

clown reach his present pinnacle?

This morning we have as our guest Mr. Nicholas Kovach, who has been supporting

himself in this country for many years by playing and making some of

Khrushchev's favorite instruments, the domra.

As the American media poked fun at Khrushchev's expense, trying to paint

him less scary than usual, In order to bring the fear factor down a notch for

the American public, the Soviet leader stepped onto American soil for the first

time.

During the months leading up to the trip, Khrushchev personally paid very

close attention to every little aspect of the proposed itinerary, including

such details as how many guns should salute him during the welcoming

ceremony.

And Khrushchev's attention to detail and persistence paid off.

At the airport, everything was shining, shimmering and glittering. I must say

that it was done with refined taste, pomp and great attention to detail.

In short, everything that was supposed to be there for an official welcoming

ceremony for a head of state was there. I was satisfied.

The president has been given a great deal of advice on what he should do with

his visitor. One piece of advice coming from Senator Johnson is that he should

take him to church on grounds that it is never too late for a sinner to repent.

As Khrushchev, smiling and waving his hand, rode into Washington, he saw the

Americans for the first time.

It was an enormous crowd, a quarter of a million to be exact.

lined up all the way along the Soviet premier's 15-mile ride from the airport.

But, in contrast to the Soviet premier, they didn't cheer.

They didn't wave their hands.

More than that, they didn't even scream insults.

They just stood there, completely still and completely silent, eyeing the man

passing them in a Lincoln convertible, thinking that this is the same man who

would one day push a little red button and unleash upon them... a nuclear

Armageddon.

After arriving at the White House, the first thing that Khrushchev did was to

present President Eisenhower with a gift.

It was a miniature replica of the iron ball that the Soviets had shot to the

moon just one day before Khrushchev arrived in Washington.

Needless to say, this impressive Soviet accomplishment was a huge blow for the

Americans. After all, just the day before, they had lost the space race

once again.

when the Soviets marked the moon with a pennant that had the short but matter-of

-fact inscription, USSR, September 1959.

Now, holding up for the cameras the replica of that famous Soviet pennant,

Eisenhower was astounded and appalled.

How could the barely concealed gloating Khrushchev dare to pull such a publicity

stunt during his very first hours in America?

But, although boiling inside, Eisenhower behaved like a true politician.

he smiled and even thanked khrushchev for the thoughtful gift overall the

score on day one was definitely one nil in favor of khrushchev at least in the

eyes of the american media who would analyze the first day of k in the usa in

sports like commentary the next morning today it's wednesday september the 16th

1959 right on the hour and from studio 3b here is dave garroway

We'll be covering the Khrushchev visit, of course, this morning, as we did

yesterday, and we'll all this week.

We'll be showing you, perhaps, facets of him that you may not have recognized,

like what a great showman he turned out to be yesterday.

Yes, I knew when that little girl presented him with the flowers that he

was going to embrace her.

pat her head or something little things like taking the play away from the

president by holding his homburg up a couple feet in the air to shade his face

things that actors kill other actors for the way he took out those little 18th

century glasses of his little round glasses slowly put them on his face that

was brilliant putting his arm around the president in the car riding into the

airport

Winking at the reporters. A tight squeeze that was, wasn't it? Yes, there

was not very much space left there in that back seat between Mr. and Mrs. K

and the president. They talk about Americans being overfed. I think the

Russians do all right.

The president was almost lost in the back seat there. You could barely see

him.

At the National Press Club in Washington, an enormous crowd of 500

journalists gathered for history's first ever unscripted Q&A session of the

Western press with a leader of the Soviet Union.

The very first question addressed Khrushchev's role during his predecessor

Stalin's bloody reign.

There is a story that at the meeting of the Communist Party Congress, during

which he delivered his long speech about the crimes that Mr Stalin had committed,

that someone in the audience set up an unsigned but written question.

Mr Khrushchev paused in the middle of the speech.

and read the question to the audience.

What were you doing while Stalin was committing these crimes?

The question asked.

Mr. Khrushchev suggested that perhaps the author would like to arise and

identify himself.

No one stood up.

Well comrades, Mr. Khrushchev said, now you know what I was doing while Stalin

was committing these crimes.

Perhaps the chairman would like to comment on that story.

What I would like to ask the authors of this fable is the following. When you

were making this story up, What were you trying to achieve?

Did you want to put me in an embarrassing situation?

And that's why you started to laugh even before I had a chance to answer it. We,

Russians, have a saying, he who laughs last...

loves best.

So I would like to warn the tale-tellers of such absurd fables. Be careful, so

you wouldn't come to regret your make-believe stories afterwards.

But I'm not going to be provoked by you. I'm not going to retaliate with some

offensive words. I'm not even going to answer this provocative question, simply

because in the end, truth will always prevail over a lie.

This was definitely a pretty scary start for a friendly press conference.

But that didn't stop the American journalist from pushing Khrushchev's

buttons with more unpleasant questions.

Questions about his predecessor, the bloody dictator Stalin.

About the Soviet invasion in Hungary. About Khrushchev's infamous We Will Bury

You remark.

About freedom of speech in the Soviet Union.

Jews in the Soviet Union. Religion in the Soviet Union.

Khrushchev answered some of the questions.

laughed off a few others and dodged the rest.

In other words, he proved that whatever else he might be, he was also a cunning

politician.

At exactly 7.52 the next morning, Khrushchev arrived at Washington Union

Station, fully ready for the beginning of his road trip across America.

There goes Chairman Nikita Khrushchev through the honor guard of American Army

troops to the train which will take him to New York City.

So far, in his public appearances, Khrushchev has shown no indication at

all that he's even aware of the elaborate, fantastic security

precautions that have been taken for his sake.

Khrushchev's security was fantastic indeed.

More men were protecting the Soviet premier than any other visiting

dignitary in American history.

And there were several very solid reasons behind this.

First of all, the FBI estimated that at least 25,000 Americans wanted to kill

Khrushchev during his journey across the country.

Secondly, Soviet security officials, the ominous KGB, had candidly informed their

American counterparts that even an unsuccessful attempt at assassination of

the chairman would result in a nuclear strike against the united states on his

way to new york khrushchev engaged in a heated discussion with his official tour

guide henry cabot lodge the topic of conversation initiated by khrushchev was

fascinating to say the least who would win a nuclear war between the soviet

union and the united states

Lodge was shocked.

But Khrushchev's reason for discussing this matter on American soil was

actually pretty simple.

One of the points on his agenda was to engrave in the minds of everybody he was

meeting during the trip that the Soviet Union was a superpower not to be trifled

with.

Meanwhile, in Manhattan, a likely ground zero in case of a Soviet nuclear attack,

hundreds of thousands took to the streets to welcome Mr. K.

Well, actually, nobody came to welcome him. Some came to take a peek at him,

others to protest.

And there were nearly unlimited options on what exactly to protest about.

It's easy to find topics to be opposed to when it comes to the world's top

communist.

But both parties were about to get disappointed.

For security reasons, Kay's motorcade zoomed by from the station to the hotel

in exactly six minutes.

So in the end, nobody got a chance to either stare at him gloomily or scream

insults at him. And muttering about wasting a good part of the day for

nothing, the crowd started to disperse.

And by doing so, paralyzed Manhattan for a few more hours.

Meanwhile, Kay was already at his first formal event in the Big Apple, the

Mayor's Luncheon.

Just another routine luncheon.

Right down to the routine Geiger counter-sweep of Khrushchev's chair,

table, and food.

In our country, the Soviet Union, the government pays for such banquets. But

in the U.S., it's the people themselves who pay money to attend such events.

Imagine, they buy tickets, like it's a play in the theater or something.

If I may say, this reminded me of something from my youth. When I was a

teenager, Each year, on September 14th, a fair came into the town nearby.

It brought in people of all ages, mostly because of the circus and traveling zoo,

where for half a ruble you could see a real-life elephant.

Everybody I knew went to see this elephant, year after year. It was like

the thing to do.

Well, now, in the U.S., it was pretty much the same thing, only instead of an

elephant, people came to see me, a Russian bear.

They were probably wondering, what does he look like in real life?

Does he know how to behave in polite society?

What about his table manners?

Does he at least know how to hold a knife and a fork properly?

At the table, Khrushchev behaved well.

The American elite, during their rendezvous with the Soviet leader,

behaved well too.

The same couldn't be said about the general American public, though.

Next day, near the UN building, there was another protest about Khrushchev's

presence in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Red murder!

Red murder!

Red murder!

Red murder!

Red murder!

Next day, Khrushchev was to head west.

And nobody could have foreseen how things would turn out there.

His two-day visit to New York over, Chairman Khrushchev flies 3,000 miles

across the United States to Los Angeles.

Long before Khrushchev's arrival at the Dream Factory, the who's who list of

Hollywood was already at the Café de Paris, impatiently awaiting the

communist dictator.

Even Marilyn Monroe.

notorious for being late for anything and everything, arrived several hours in

advance.

After a brief lunch, the president of 20th Century Fox, Spiros Skouras, took

the stand.

His speech had a pretty unusual beginning.

I don't know whether you heard that, but the Soviet senator said, let's hurry up.

Mr. Chairman, this I was not going to tell in my speech.

But your country is the greatest corporation,

the greatest capitalistic firm, the greatest monopoly the world has ever

known. This unexpected slander on the workers' paradise should have made

Khrushchev blow a fuse.

But once again, an old proverb, it's not what you say, it's how you say it,

proved to be true.

And Khrushchev simply laughed it off.

Soon, things got back to normal, however.

Mr. Chairman, in all modesty, I beg you to look at me.

My two brothers and I came from one of the smallest villages of Greece and

from a very poor family.

Not an easy task lay before Khrushchev.

Now, as a true politician, He had to top this touching and heartwarming rags-to

-riches story.

And as a true politician, Kay took the bull by the horns right away.

This certainly makes a very good impression.

And I wish to express my great respect for you.

But at the same time, that doesn't impress me much.

Do you want to know who I am?

I began working as soon as I learned how to walk.

Even before I turned 15, I already had a long list of jobs. First I shepherded

calves, sheep and cows for capitalists. Then I worked at factories, coal pits

and chemical plants.

And who am I now?

Now I'm the prime minister of the Great Soviet Union.

In this friendly clash of the career growth opportunities of the two

different systems, Kay had clearly won.

And after the victory, he decided to take his speech in a direction which

nobody could have foreseen.

America is a fine country. American people are great people.

And I'm here as the guest of your president, so I'm the guest of your

great country.

And I'm very pleased, as well as my comrades, with our stay in America so

far.

But before I came to your city, an itinerary was drawn up for me with a

program of what I'd see here.

But just now, right before my speech, I was told, no, you can't go and see such

and such town.

What's the name of that place?

Disneyland. Yeah, that's it.

So I ask, why not? And they tell me, you see, you can't go there, just you

listen. Just you listen to this, just listen to what I've been told.

You can't go there because we, the American authorities, cannot guarantee

your safety there.

Now let me ask you, what is happening there? Is there a cholera or plague

outbreak? And if I go there, I will get sick? Or maybe bandits seize Disneyland

and they will kill me if I appear there?

I really, really wanted to see that place, but now I can't. And this is the

situation in which I, your guest, find myself in. This is beyond my

understanding.

I thought you had a well-organized household here. And when I would come,

my security wouldn't be due to the fact that I would be locked in a bulletproof

closed car, stewing and sweltering under your sun for hours upon hours until all

the juices leave my body and I become completely dried up. I thought that I

would be able to walk freely among the free American people, but now they tell

me, no, it's impossible.

This causes bitter regret, and I cannot but express my disappointment and

dismay. you thank you for your attention as hollywood gave the soviet premier

a standing ovation everyone was pretty much in shock and it's easy to

understand why after all they just witnessed a temper tantrum thrown by a

65 year old communist dictator because his visit to disneyland got cancelled

After Hollywood, with Disneyland off limits, the American hosts killed time

by driving rather aimlessly around L.A. and its suburbs.

And once again, Khrushchev found himself stewing under the hot California sun in

a closed, bulletproof Cadillac with no air conditioning.

But this time, it was not just incredibly hot, it was also incredibly

boring.

Luckily, everything comes to an end.

And finally, after almost three hours of pointless driving, Khrushchev arrived at

the Ambassador Hotel for the L.A. mayor's official dinner.

Everything was going fine at that dinner until this mayor of L.A. gave his

speech. I don't remember this mayor's name, but he wasn't fat and he didn't

have a big snout. In other words, he didn't look the way our artists usually

depict capitalists in our propaganda posters.

Mr. Chairman, we do not agree with your widely quoted phrase, we

shall bury you.

You shall not bury us. We're happy with our way of life.

We recognize its shortcomings and are always trying to improve it.

But if challenged, we shall fight to the death to preserve it.

This We Will Bury You had been haunting Khrushchev for nearly three years.

Back in 1956, while addressing foreign ambassadors in Moscow, Kay had said,

whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will dig you in.

What he meant by that is that socialism would eventually triumph over capitalism

in economic and political competition.

But the American propaganda machine took this quote out of context, translated it

the way it saw fit, and used it as a communist scare tactic.

Khrushchev wants to kill you.

In the three years that followed, Khrushchev explained more than once what

he meant by this phrase, and he wasn't about to do it one more time.

I was about to explode.

Of course, I could have let it pass, but sometimes these anti-Soviet types need a

good punch in the teeth.

And so, after the end of my prepared speech, I went for a counterattack.

And now I turn to you, my dear mayor, my host.

You treated me and my comrades to an excellent meal, and I thank you for it.

But I will speak my mind nevertheless.

Can I do so in your country?

You said in your speech that we want

to bury you.

I want to ask you, why did you bring this up?

following my arrival in America I already had a chance to give an in-depth

explanation on this matter during my press conference after all I suppose

mayors in your country read the press

Because in our country, chairmen of city committees read newspapers on a daily

basis. If they don't, they have a good chance of not being elected for the next

term.

But on a more serious note, I came here with serious intentions.

But you are trying to reduce my visit to a joke. You should first understand what

exactly we are talking about here. I hope you do realize that we are talking

about matters of peace or war, and life or death here.

Then Khrushchev seemed to calm down a bit, but nevertheless ended his speech

with an ominous statement in which he basically said, you know what?

I don't feel welcome here. It took me about 12 hours to fly to your country.

It should take me just 10 hours or so to fly back.

But remember, I am the first ever head of Russia to visit the United States.

I can go.

No problem. But I don't know when, if ever, another Soviet premier will visit

your country.

Shocked dinner guests struggled to understand what this implied exactly.

The end of Khrushchev's visit to the United States?

Or the beginning of World War III?

But Khrushchev didn't stop there.

Later that night, he threw yet another dramatic temper tantrum. This one behind

the closed doors of his hotel room.

There, he screamed, lambasting the reception he had been receiving to

smithereens, once again threatening to leave the United States immediately if

things didn't change.

The actual list of Khrushchev's complaints was pretty long.

He cursed the endless boring official breakfasts, luncheons and dinners, not

being able to meet real Americans, the cancellation of his Disneyland visit

and, of course, the L.A. mayor.

He seemed so angry that even his aides, used to Khrushchev's explosive

character, got really frightened.

But at the end of his tantrum, Khrushchev smiled, put his finger to his

lips and pointed to the ceiling, where he figured the FBI had installed

listening devices.

Like his other tantrums that day, this one was an act. He was simply bluffing,

trying to scare the Americans into treating him better. And it worked like

a charm. We'll switch now to Washington for more on the Capitol's feelings about

this aspect of the tour from CBS News correspondent Howard K. Smith.

Washington, where or near where the climax of Khrushchev's trip will be

played in a few days, has watched the Soviet leader's tour past the halfway

mark with mixed feelings.

There is, as the White House statement said today, a profound wish that

Khrushchev will be treated courteously on his tour.

It would be a shame if relations between the giant nuclear nations, which

survived the Berlin blockade and the Korean War, should now founder on a

missed excursion to the Disneyland amusement park.

Washington wants nothing to happen which would cast a shadow on the talks

Khrushchev is to have with President Eisenhower here late this week.

The White House decision to keep Khrushchev happy at all costs went into

effect the very next morning.

Khrushchev's train on its way from Los Angeles to San Francisco was allowed to

make whistle stops so the chairman could finally meet and greet ordinary citizens

of America face to face.

For the first time since the beginning of the trip, Kay was working the crowd.

And he was loving it.

But what was even more amazing is that the Americans, who got a chance to hang

out with Mr. Kay for the first time, loved it too.

Sure, for them, he was still a communist dictator.

But also by now, thanks to the extensive media coverage, he had become a larger

-than-life celebrity.

The laughing, joking, grumbling and unpredictable star of the first ever non

-stop media show.

To Americans, Mr. K was starting to seem like a familiar sitcom character.

The grumpy, growling uncle with a secret heart of gold.

After all, the average American could easily understand how a guy might get

upset if some government bureaucrat stopped him from seeing Disneyland.

Back on the train, Khrushchev suddenly asked Lodge, Say, do you remember this L

.A. mayor of yours?

Uh, yes, I do, carefully answered Lodge, not knowing what to expect and secretly

fearing another tantrum.

I think your mayor tried to let out a fart.

But instead, he shat his own pants, laughed Khrushchev joyfully.

And just like that... All the unpleasantness of L.A. was forgotten.

And for the rest of the day, the chairman was in an excellent mood.

Next morning in San Francisco, celebrity gawkers started gathering outside the

Mark Hopkins Hotel as early as 5 a.m.

There were people from all walks of life.

But they had one thing in common.

All of them were Khrushchev struck.

Throughout the day, the hype around Mr. K in San Francisco continued to rise,

and by the late afternoon, it came close to boiling point.

By the time Khrushchev and his entourage entered Quality Foods, a huge new

suburban supermarket, it was already packed with the media mob, celebrity

gawkers, and completely stunned regular shoppers. As soon as the tour started,

the crowd surged toward the celebrity dictator.

trying not to miss a single moment of this historic event, a communist leader

in a capitalist supermarket.

Cameramen and photographers were going bananas, elbowing each other and

climbing onto shelves and counters to get a good shot of Mr. K.

Housewives held their babies up high for them to catch a glimpse of the Red King.

Teenage girls had the time of their lives.

One of them shook Kay's hand, screeched, he touched me, and fainted.

As Khrushchev went through the store, mass hysteria followed him. As one of

the reporters present duly noted, it was like a happy hour in a manic depressive

ward.

Pretty soon, police found it impossible to handle the crowd.

cut the tour short and whisked khrushchev away

all in all it was a

logical grand finale to khrushchev's first week in america

from

san francisco mr khrushchev flies to des moines iowa a city in the center of the

United States.

What do you folks think about Nikita Khrushchev's coming to Des Moines? Are

you in favor of it?

Well, I think it's a wonderful thing for him to see ordinary people live and how

we live in America.

If you did see him, would you wave? Oh, yeah, I'd wave at him.

I'd wave anyway if I didn't like him, you know.

I'd be a poor wave, you know.

A poor wave? Yeah.

Thank you very much.

And that's the way the people feel along the drug counter of Katz Drugstore. Now

to see how things have been progressing from that point, let's pick up the

Khrushchev party with our live television cameras to get this exclusive

view.

The temperature was some 36 degrees in this cooling room.

Mr. Menshikov, the Soviet ambassador to the United States, tried to hurry the

premier along.

After the tour of the packing plant, we came into this room.

where the tasting was supposed to take place and we saw that all the film tv

and radio broadcasting equipment was already there the place was also

literally packed with journalists

This capitalist, the owner of the factory, I mean, definitely knew what

marketing was all about.

He'd apparently decided to use my visit as free advertising for his products,

because after this he'd be able to say, Khrushchev visited our plant, he tasted

our products, he really enjoyed our sausages. This means that our sausages

are the best.

So this is how I ended up stuffing myself with these American sausages on

live TV.

This was definitely another unexpected turn of events.

The man who had arrived in America as the world's most notorious communist was

about to become a familiar character of American capitalism, the celebrity

pitchman.

have the pleasure of eating one of our hot dogs with pretty girls to serve it.

Mr. Khrushchev had his first frankfurter in the sausage making department of the

packing plant.

He proclaimed it good, except he said the trouble was there wasn't any beer to

go with it.

He also said that the sausage was so excellent they should not change the

formula.

It hadn't been suggested that they were thinking of changing the formula.

Nikita Khrushchev is at the heart of the matter tonight in Des Moines, Iowa,

where he's the biggest attraction since the Iowa State Fair closed about two

weeks ago. Well, tomorrow, Mr.

Khrushchev goes to the Garst Farm, the real object of his visit to Iowa. He had

said all along that he hoped to visit his old friend Roswell Garst at Coon

Rapids. Our live television cameras will be on the scene, and tomorrow night at 8

o'clock, we'll return with a complete report on Khrushchev on the farm.

The eccentric corn farmer, millionaire Roswell Garst, whom the Soviet premier

lovingly called my best American friend, was a very interesting character.

The two had headed off four years earlier, when Garst was invited to the

Soviet Union as an agricultural expert on corn.

But unexpectedly, at the end of his visit, found himself in a tete-a-tete

meeting with Mr. K.

At the end of this improbable meeting, Garst sold K 5,000 tons of his hybrid

seed corn.

And just like that, thanks to a friendship with the world's top

communist, the American capitalist farmer's wealth grew from $300,000 to $7

million in a matter of just a few years.

But on Wednesday, September 23, 1959, even the clever Mr. Garst didn't know

what he was in for.

Long before Khrushchev's arrival, the Garst farm already resembled a madhouse.

A 300-strong media mob of exhausted but at the same time overexcited journalists

was running wild all over the place, just like a bunch of little kids who'd

missed their midday nap.

There was like a whole army of media at the Garst farm that day.

When Garst started showing me around, this horde of journalists,

photographers, and cameramen literally started running around us in circles.

Pretty soon, Garst started to get furious.

And he had a perfectly good reason for it.

These journalists were trampling his crops.

They were worse than locusts.

By the time when one American journalist appeared right in front of us, he

probably just wanted to take a good picture or something.

Garst was already boiling with rage.

And so he went and kicked that journalist in the ass, and I must say,

left a pretty good footprint on the journalist's backside.

Never before in American history had one man been the subject of such extensive

media coverage.

It can be safely said that this trip marked the debut of the now all too

familiar phenomenon of the non-stop round-the-clock media circus a hot story

reported recorded and inevitably distorted

By day ten of the trip, it was absolutely clear that something had

changed in America.

Less than two weeks ago, when Khrushchev rode into Washington, the crowd stood

silent, sullen and afraid.

Now, they smiled, cheered and rejoiced.

Of course, in these ten days, Khrushchev had not converted Americans to

communism, but he had succeeded in charming them.

And it can be said that to some extent, He even freed them from the fear.

After all, he seemed like a down-to-earth fellow who laughed and

joked and sometimes lost his temper. In other words, he was just like one of

them. Surely a guy like that won't start a nuclear Armageddon.

Yes, he was still the world's top communist, but nobody's perfect, right?

And so, in spite of all his flaws, Americans just kind of liked the old

guy. And Khrushchev seemed to like them too.

While visiting a steel mill in Pittsburgh, one of the workers presented

him with a cigar.

Khrushchev didn't smoke, but he was clearly touched by this gesture. He put

the cigar in his pocket, thanked the worker, and then, unexpectedly, took off

his wristwatch and handed it to him.

Nikita Khrushchev's watch turned Kenneth Jackie into an instant celebrity.

Next day, he even took Khrushchev's watch to a jeweler.

to find out how much insurance he should get, but the jeweler told him not to

bother. It turned out that the ruler of the largest nation of the world wore a

$14 watch.

From Pittsburgh, Mr. Khrushchev flies back to Washington.

He returns to the capital city from which his American journey began.

Behind him are busy days of traveling and constantly meeting people.

Ahead are a few days of private conversations with President Eisenhower.

Khrushchev's return to Washington marked the end of his fun road trip across

America.

Next on the schedule was work.

The two most powerful people in the world, Chairman Khrushchev and President

Eisenhower, were to sit down at Camp David and negotiate solutions to the

many burning issues of the Cold War.

By now, it was clear that the White House agenda had fallen through.

Khrushchev hadn't been softened up for the talks as originally planned.

in fact he was going in stronger than ever

three

days later when khrushchev and eisenhower rode back together from camp

david to washington it was already clear that the talks hadn't gone that well in

fact the two leaders hadn't come to a solid agreement on any of the issues

discussed which included the Cold War hotspot Berlin, disarmament and trade

relations, among many others.

But why?

What happened at Camp David?

During our talks at Camp David, Eisenhower would repeatedly tell me, Mr.

Khrushchev, I really want to come to an agreement with you on these burning

issues. I would answer him, Mr.

President, it would make me very happy as well. But at the same time I knew,

how could we come to an agreement?

The positions of our two countries at the time stood in such extreme

opposition to each other.

the conditions simply weren't ripe yet for us to come to an agreement on pretty

much anything and to be perfectly frank i never had any illusions that i would

come to america would have a talk and all of the world's problems would

magically disappear what kind of a daydream is that moscow wasn't building

a day you know these things take time and you have to start small we came to

the usa to see and to be seen and that's exactly what we did

But at the same time, the talks were not a total waste.

The two elderly gentlemen ate together, watched movies together and took long

walks together.

And in the process, they came to know each other a little, and even to like

each other a little.

After the end of the talks, Khrushchev invited Eisenhower to come to Russia the

following spring, and the American president accepted the invitation.

The seven months following Khrushchev's return from the United States were some

of the warmest of the Cold War.

the russians received a positive image of the americans from their leaders

speeches and the unexpectedly positive soviet media coverage of the trip and it

changed their perception of america for their part the americans transferred the

image of a jolly down-to-earth khrushchev onto the way they felt about

the soviet union the propaganda machines on both sides all of a sudden started

talking about a new era of good feelings between the two superpowers

And in the minds of many people, not just in the Soviet Union and the United

States, but all around the world, Cold War was coming to an end.

But everything changed on May 1, 1960, when a U-2 was shot down over the

territory of the Soviet Union.

Khrushchev took the news of an American spy plane over Russia hard.

He felt betrayed by Eisenhower, betrayed on a personal, human level.

Over the past few months, he had started referring to President Eisenhower as his

American friend, and now his friend had stuck a knife in his back.

And Khrushchev was quick to retaliate.

Contrary to all diplomatic norms, in an angry public speech, he cancelled

Eisenhower's upcoming visit to Russia.

And after this, oh, my dear God, Eisenhower wants to come here? I don't

understand this. I just don't. Is he clueless or what?

It's pretty straightforward from my point of view. You don't eat where you

shit. It's that simple.

It's not that hard to understand, you know? The president took a dump in the

Soviet Union, and now he wants to come to me to Khrushchev for a dinner? But

how can I be a host to him after what he did to me?

But even after this, Khrushchev wasn't done.

Two weeks later, on May the 16th, he arrived in France for a long-planned

four-power Paris summit.

Here, he once again demanded an official apology from President Eisenhower.

For political reasons, Eisenhower couldn't give him one.

In retort, Khrushchev, with great relish, sabotaged the summit and left

the talks before they even started.

As the next step of his vendetta, Khrushchev, against standard protocol,

appointed himself as the head of the Soviet delegation to the United Nations

and in September returned to New York to denounce Eisenhower on Eisenhower's own

turf.

At the UN, Khrushchev met Fidel Castro for the first time and, one day,

protesting a speech, took off his shoe and briefly banged the desk with it.

Paradoxically... This 30-second long shoe-banging incident would become the

most famous act of his life in the Western collective memory.

In 1962, Khrushchev sent Soviet nuclear missiles to communist Cuba.

When the Americans found out about this, President Kennedy ordered US ships to

blockade the island and demanded of Khrushchev to remove the nukes.

For 13 days, the world hung on the brink of a nuclear war.

And at the very last minute, Khrushchev backed down.

But why?

Yes, of course, Khrushchev had many reasons to do so. After all, he was a

wise and masterful politician.

But what if love had something to do with it as well?

So let's imagine, just theoretically, mind you, that among the many reasons

why Khrushchev didn't push that little red button during the Cuban Missile

Crisis, were the fond memories of his fleeting but true love affair with

America.

After all, the butterfly effect, minor events resulting in grand consequences,

is a serious scientific theory.

So maybe this trip was more important than we realized.

Or maybe not.

Who knows what mysteries lurk in the human heart? And who knows what

mysteries lurked in the heart of the pudgy Russian with the big smile?

who roamed across the United States so many long years ago.

I dreamt I saw Khrushchev in a pink Cadillac He drove

down a freeway with two chicks in the back I pulled up beside

him and I heard him say, He's good, fine country here in

USA.