It may seem strange to you (or maybe not), but in 1959 the leader of the Soviet Union (Premier Nikita Khrushchev) visited America for almost two weeks. He visited farms, traveled to California and generally soaked up American culture.
President Eisenhower was hopeful the talks he would have with Khrushchev would ease tensions with the Soviets. Also, Americans were hopeful that the leading communist in the world would get a "taste of American freedom" and want to develop our philosophy in his country.
Well, none of those things happened. His trip to America is an interesting footnote of the Eisenhower era and marks the first time the leader of the Soviets came to America.
For this week's blog...
1.Please visit this website to view Khrushchev's itinerary from the trip.
2. Read this interview with Richard Davies from 1979. Davies was in charge of managing the press (media) when Khrushchev visited Los Angeles during his trip.
3. Finally, read part two from Davies about the Premier's interest in the American corn industry.
For the comments section, discuss what you learned from the three readings. What strikes you as interesting about this odd episode in American history?
Remember, you entry this week must be at least 400 words.
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev’s tour of the United States began on September 15, 1959. There was an enormous press party that went with Mr. Khrushchev around the country and he was met at every stop by double the number of correspondents and journalists who were traveling with him. There was a lot of discussion about who should handle the logistics for the press party, but the big problem was that Mr. Khrushchev and his guide spent nearly a week traveling the country. Everyone wanted to be involved with this trip in some way. Even the journalists that didn't want to stay the whole trip wanted to a to at least be there for the major stops because there was always something newsworthy. This trip ended up being a huge media event and was televised and talked about everywhere. There were about 15 people chosen to be members of the pool and the functions of these people were to observe, to be in the immediate vicinity of Khrushchev, and to lead Americans who were with him and whom he met at each stop. President Roosevelt was honored at Hyde Park and he was a great friend of Russia. A big dinner took place and Khrushchev threatens to go home. Throughout this trip, thousands of miles were covered by many huge press corps. Before this time, there hadn't been that much precedent and there weren't big enough officials to catch the eye of the media.. until this trip. Davies said that a train was taken to see the Vandenberg Air Force Base, which they did, but Khrushchev made it a point to not look at the missiles. By the time he was in the United States for about four or five days, Khrushchev spent a weekend with President Eisenhower at Camp David and also went there at the end of his trip. While at the Des Moines Chamber, the Colonel managed to get a room somewhere and set up a press room in just a couple of hours, with the help of the Des Moines Register or the Tribune, which was the Des Moines paper. This Colonel was said to have been such a great "unsung hero" and Davies said he would never forget him. In the end, there were constant stories during this whole trip about the many catastrophes and about how badly this was handled. Davies said that when he arrived back in Washington, he was furious about the whole thing and wrote a memo because of it, explaining how things could've been handled better. He also said that things could've been a little more planned and organized. He also said that the whole trip was a lesson on the lack of foresight.
ReplyDeleteI think that this episode in history was interesting. It's different to hear about a trip like this from an interview. I really liked reading about Khrushchev's itinerary and I'm sure it was stressful being him at the time. (491 words)
Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, his wife Nina, son Sergei, daughters Julia and Rada, and son-in-law Alexei Adzhubei were the first soviets/soviet leader to come and America. He claimed he was curious to see what we were able about basically. Their first stop: they landed at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, just outside of Washington D.C. "With hundreds of members of the public and the press in attendance, President Dwight Eisenhower gives welcoming remarks, and Khrushchev makes a short speech thanking Eisenhower for the invitation and stating his hopes that the trip will foster greater understanding between the two nations: "We have come to you with an open heart and with good intentions. The Soviet people want to live in peace and friendship with the American people." The next day Khrushchev leaves "Washington, D.C. for the Agricultural Experiment Station in Beltsville, Maryland where he supposedly complained a lot that the pigs are too fat and the turkeys are too small."
ReplyDelete"Back in D.C. for a luncheon at the National Press Club, Khrushchev reiterates his "sincere desire to achieve better relations between our two countries and promote peace all over the world." After Khrushchev’s speech, National Press Club president William Lawrence asks the premier about his 1956 "Secret Speech," in which he denounced Stalin. Khrushchev responds, "I shall not reply to this question, which I look upon as being provocative, and would like to take this occasion to deny any such malicious rumors and lies, which do not correspond to the truth." He toured most of the rest of the US and a team of reporters traveled with them to keep a log if you will of his travels and events. During the tour, Nixon and Khrushchev had a series of exchanges through interpreters debating the relative merits of capitalism and communism, which are now known as the Kitchen Debate. The Kitchen Debate took place in a number of locations at the exhibition but primarily in the kitchen of a suburban model house, cut in half for easy viewing."
"Roswell Garst — had been in the Soviet Union several times, attempting to interest not Khrushchev — because I don’t know that he had ever seen Khrushchev before; maybe he had, but I don’t know — but the Ministry of Agriculture, in growing corn, maize. Garst himself was not only a corn raiser but also a breeder of seed corn, and a sort of geneticist, and he had his own company which raised and sold seed corn, and he had a particular variety which he thought would go well — I don’t know. He was a very enterprising man; he and his sons had this beautiful farm and a terrific seed company."
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Khrushchev was the premier, or head, of the soviets. He and the American president wanted to plan a trip to where he could come to the united states and look at some of our finest things. When he got here there was media (when is there not media) everywhere. The goal was the same for Russia as it was for was and that was to try to make peace with the soviets and them do the same with us. As Khrushchev toured around, there was multiple times when his security had to step in because things got dangerous and unsafe. One thing Khrushchev said quite often was that he never got to speak with the american people, he only spoke with government people not the people who work every day and our the backbone of our country. Another thing that was kind of funny was how he said they may have beaten us to the moon, but we beat them in the sausage making business, after he tried an american hotdog. One thing also that made him a little upset was his failed trip to disney land because it was unsafe for him to go there. He was also the first Soviet Premier to visit the United States. He stayed for a total of 12 days. People say that they wish it could have been a better trip and to do so they would have to have planned it a hole lot better and make a more detailed plan for him to follow while he is here. They should not have let the press be all over him the entire time he was there, that way he could actually enjoy the trip instead of always having to answer questions that are not even a big deal at that time. I think that this is a very interesting that we let him in our country. Now i know that we are trying to start a peace between countries and all but letting him in our country could've ended up bad for say if he got shot and killed by an american, that would only make things worse between our countries. Also we made americans look bad by people being rude to him and him always being followed around. Its just interesting that he wanted to even come here and be the first ever from his country to come to the United States.
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Khrushchev who was the soviets leader visited the United States with his wife, son, and daughter for two weeks. After a long argument between the two countries secretary's they decided that the soviet leader would visit Washington, D.C., New York, California, Iowa, Pennsylvania, and back to Camp David. Both the president of the United States and the leader of the Soviet Union were hoping a trip like this would ease tensions between the two countries and help out the red scare situation. The new model soviet plane had cracks and there was worries of the plan being unstable but the soviet leader wanted to impress or show off to America the new generation of soviet aircrafts and even with the plane having some small bumps and bruises it made it from Moscow to American with no problems. Khrushchev goes to the White House and presents Eisenhower with a replica of the Lunik II which had landed on the moon the previous day. And at the end of the trip At Camp David, Eisenhower and Khrushchev discuss important issues such as disarmament, the situation in Berlin, and trade between their two nations. Though, at the end of their talks they agree, the question of general disarmament is the most important one facing the world today think Mrs. Khrushcheva was not exactly enchanted. She was, as far as I was aware a woman of considerable education, and I would say even culture, not prepossessing looking by our standards, but an intelligent woman, who had contributed enormously, I believe, to Khrushchev’s education.She was a school teacher when they were married, he was unschooled, very crude, raw, a peasant boy who had gone to work in a mining town in the Ukraine and never had any higher education, but she came from a slightly better background and helped to educate him. When there was a mixup one person was quoted as to saying “You really have to plan these things very, very carefully; you have to have somebody clearly in charge; nobody was in charge of the whole thing… There should have been very careful thought given to where he went, and ways worked out so that the press did not dominate the whole thing the way it did and get in the way and turn it into nothing but a media event. Well, so much for all that.
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DeleteKhrushchev and his wife and his kids and I believe his son in law alexi adzhubei wanted to come to America. Which they did they came over to find out what we were doing and how everything was after the war and president Eisenhower let him. He greeted him with open arms and let them come in and he gave them a tour of America and how things worked and how we did this and how we did that. And he had to give speechs and then Eisenhower and him had back to back speechs about how America and Russia was becoming closer and more friendly with each other. And how they where becoming Better allies and we wouldn't have to worry about bombs really. They had a bunch of people following aroumd them and helping with their trip they had places to be all over the country one day they would be in Los Angles and then he next day they would be moving to New York to give more speeches and because they had to move a lot over and had to move around and do all sorts of speeches and appearances. They had to move around and make a lot of time for a lot of people and didn't really have time for sleeping because they were all over the place giving speeches and giving lessons and all of the people they helped and all of the things did for people helped people want to work and want to do different things, they also made a lot of dinners they had 8 or so of them and it seemed like every night there was something to do. It was a ball to go to or a dinner or a meeting or a new thing every day and they just went as the pleased showed up late and did things as they wanted. They did different things. I thought it was a very interesting time period in history to find out when and where he came and when he did stuff and how it worked and how everyone did certain things and how different it is today but it just kinda opened my eyes to what used to go on back in the day. (401)
ReplyDeleteHe became the first prime minister to visit America during that time. He was intrigued and interested in visiting America and curious to see how our technology and innovation, the way we would do things our way. He traveled all the way around the country. He did different things to explore our county and the way we did our business day in and day out. During part of his tour there were certain things that happened in his schedule that were very concerning and sticky situations but they didn't panicked they had security escort him out. He went to the dinner that had more than 2,000 people attended to it which back in the day was were more than enough. He even went 100 miles to go pay his respects to the First Lady ms Roosevelt. They went to multiple iconic sites and cities. I didn't know about how many celebrities that came to the party in los angles which of course had as many people to wow the prime minister as possible. Which had Frank Taylor and frank Sinatra to show they rolled out the red carpet for him. He also had to go to Disneyland which turned out not as safe as it could have been and they had to leave early beacuse of safety measures and threats around the area. He even went on a train to San Francisco to tour and said that LA didn't give him enough opportunities to talk to Americans around the city. He also went to San hose to have a private dinner with IBM to discuss efficiency of the economy and company. It shows that we can be compromised and accountable for each other and show the people from other countries on how we do stuff the way we do it here so that it can show people our innovation and inspiration to improve your country and city each and every day. I learned about our American spirit and our hospitality towards other foreign leaders back in the day was very well managed and booked. There was a competition towards each other the same way beacuse it can only bring out the best in each other. We we're the number one world power during that time and we still have potential to better and better each and every day we need to come together and put aside our differences.
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On September 15, 1959, an iconic and monumental occurrence took the United States by storm. For the first time in American history, a Soveit ruler visited and toured the United States. Nikita Khrushchev, along with his family, spent many days in the United States learning a lot about American culture, economy, and productivity. Khrushchev had previously been interested in coming to America for quite some time, but the invitation was never extended to him until shorty after July 1959. He often mentioned his deep desire to meet with average, everyday American people, even requesting to visit the well-known Disneyland. His desire for this is very common among people from different countries. The "American Way" is dreamed about and admired all over the world, simply because there's nothing quite like it. Since its start, people have wondered and dreamed about what America was like, but never came. Thanks to technology, people from across the world can get a small taste of what America is like. Videos, pictures, and the Internet give others access to view the simple things we don't really think about. This is the biggest takeaway that I have from this blog. Khrushchev had heard all about the United States for his whole life, and was always interested in it. When he finally arrived, he was scheduled to meet with many different leaders, companies, and see various sights, when he simply wanted to see what it was like to be an average American. I believe that we tried too hard to show off our biggest and greatest successes when we simply overlooked what was right in front of us, America. America in our school system, teaching the next generation to be leaders, America in our communities, who show us hard work and detemination, America in our tourist spots, like Disneyland, that show us the values of family and friends. No one can truly imitate or capture the essence of America. Of course other countries try and be more like America, because it truly is the greatest country of all. Khrushchev often complained about going to meetings, parties, and social gatherings because he just wanted to see what everyday American life was like. Plus, he didn't get to visit Disneyland (which might I add would've upset me greatly as well). So not only is this event iconic because it was the first ever, but it teaches us that we don't need to put on a show for other leaders, we simply need to be ourselves, and lead by example with the "American way". (423)
ReplyDeleteWhen Khrushchev was wanting to visit America in 1959 I think America was a bit reluctant. Robert Murphy seemed to b run comfortable with it but finally seemed to agree to let him visit. Eisenhower stated that he hopes this trip might calm things down with the Cold War and perhaps this step would be a small one towards ending the spread of communism and the Cold War. On September 18th I found it was interesting when Khrushchev was speaking about the damaging or corrosive effects the Cold War had and said how vital it was for the United Nations to have peace among the most powerful nations in the war. During this speech after talking about the Berlin crisis he said “Let us compete in who builds more homes, schools and hospitals for the people; produces more grain, milk, meat, clothing and other consumer goods; and not in who has more hydrogen bombs and rockets. This will be welcomed by all the peoples of the world." I think this is significant since we wanted to have peace but capitalism and communism were very different.
ReplyDeleteHe proceeds to thank New York for their hospitality. I find it funny that he was planning to go to Disneyland but the trip was cancelled due to unsure safety. When he was in Pittsburgh he said to Mr. Lodge “Mr. Lodge, if I may say so, must be glad: At last that 'burdensome' job… of accompanying me on my trip across America is coming to an end." As a joking way of the tensions they thought he might have had. I still think we treated him poorly as a visitor to our country and probably gave us a bad reputation to the Soviet People and their leaders. It's interesting to compare and contrast how these tours would change today. If we had tensions with Russians and one wanted to come visit our country I don't know if we'd be different or be very similar to back then. All in all this trip was important for Khrushchev to inspect our country on the inside. I think it showed that he wanted some honesty and not just rumors from the outside. Even though our leaders may have been welcoming to the Soviet people such as Khrushchev to visit our country and take a tour while forming knowledge of our infrastructure and plans. I don't think the American people took it so lightly, with him not being able to visit even Disneyland it shows lack of security and obviously reason to think there would be a threat at a child's amusement park. (435)
One of the most iconic moments in American History was on September 15, 1959. On this date in history, the first prime minister of the soviet union visited and toured the United States of America and everything that made their great and powerful rival nation so great and wonderful. This was very strange and weird at the time for all the tensions between the two countries as one was doing its best to spread the ways and ideas of communism while the other was doing everything that it could possibly do to prevent it. Soviet Union prime minister Nikita Khrushchev was the first of the soviets leaders to ever visit. Once he landed, he was to meet with all these major American corporations and leaders of the country as well as seeing some very iconic sights across the nation as he toured the United States. However he was not so concerned with meeting the others but rather he wished to see the common folk of America and see for himself what it was like to be just an average ordinary American. I find it so interesting how much pressure we put on this man 24/7 as he visited the United States. We would constantly hold this man's feet to the fire and basically try to persuade to him how much better capitalism was than communism. I thought he did a fine job though dealing with everyone and the pressure that they gave him while he was stateside. Through all of this, he also fired verbal shots back at the United States like when he would throw shade at how they beat us in the space race or how he would criticize our food industries and how we could make them better. His tour would be very long as he would go from coast to coast across the United States, visiting most every major city and big events possible for him to see. He would start from the Air Force Base in Maryland and from there he would go to cities like the big apple in New York City to Los Angeles to San Francisco then to other areas like Iowa and Pittsburgh. What blew my mind most though was how he would still complement a lot about the United States and how even though he opposed the values that we had he still showed respect for us. That astonished me because with how much pressure we put on him how he would still respect us after that. (418 words)
ReplyDeleteKhrushchev was the premier, he was in charge, of the soviets. He and the president wanted to take a trip to somewhere where he could come to the united states and look at some of our better things that he didn't have. When he got to the United States there was phones and other electronics and other things that he hadn't heard of or seen. The main purpose was the same for Russia it was to try to make peace with the soviets and them to do the same with us. As Khrushchev searched around, there was a few times when his security had to step in because things got dangerous and unsafe for them. The new model Soviet plane had cracks in their wars worries of the plane being unstable but the Soviet leader wanted to show it off to America who were new at the Air crafts and stuff. Khrushchev went to the White House and presented Eisenhower with a replica of the Lunik II. Which had landed in the moon that day before. At Camp David Eisenhower and Khrushchev discessed issues including the disarmament and with the situation in Berlin. And with the trade between the two nations that was going on. They ended up agreeing on the talks. Khrushchev continually thanked New York for being so welcomely. They had planned to go to Disney Land but the trip had gotten canceled. They were scared of the safety conditions and what could happen. 301
ReplyDeleteHis visit to America was viewed as a laughter and especially the Cold War comedy. “In September of 1959, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev visited the United States on an unprecedented goodwill trip spanning several days, thousands of miles and which was covered by a huge press corps. In stark contrast to the finely orchestrated tours and campaign stops that are common nowadays, the visit was a series of flubs and fiascoes, which led people to criticize the ineptitude of the State Department. And yet the chaos of the first leg of the trip, detailed in Act I, was nothing compared to what was to come in San Francisco and Iowa.” These words are pretty much what I saw as all his visits to America was. They said it was flubs and fiascoes. Even though he had meetings with Eisenhower about disarmament and many important things I see his visits as a laughter or funny because of the way he did things. What if the things I thought was funny was about the Disney land trip and then him ending up not going because of him being unsure because of the safety policies and the rush of it. “In San Francisco — I don’t remember. The thing became a fog in my mind. If we got two or three hours’ sleep per night we were lucky — we, the people in the press party – because we were up with the correspondents until they had gotten settled, then we got to bed, and then it was a question of bags in the corridor at four a.m., and be downstairs ready to load into the cars and buses at 4:30, because the press party left an hour ahead of the plane in which Khrushchev was riding, so it would already be on the ground before he arrived, and left also an hour ahead when he departed from a place — we left an hour before he did.” This was also key because of the hard worktop see from him here yes it kinda contradicts what I said earlier but they did not get much sleep because of all the meeting and the interviews he had daily. In all these all he wanted was peace because he talked about how the Cold War was damaging and how it affected all the nations and what it did to us. (405)
ReplyDeleteI learned much from reading these articles, I have never heard about this event before. To set the scene, it was the hight of the Cold War when Russian Nikita Khrushchev's chaos-filled twelve day trip across America place. It was primarily a political event through, dispite Khrushchev's seemingly personal desire to visit. However it was a, in the words of a reporter, "...an abysmal failure." Things went wrong left and right, thought most of the problems were inevitable. They were created by people being people, differating opinions, different views, and selfishness. Along with America's democratic nature, and encouragement of self-expression. Take, for example, the deciding of who would organize the entire thing. It was a daunting order, no one wanted to do it. So the resposibility got tossed around like a hot potato. It landed in the lap of Joe Reap, who by the account, just gave up and let it be a disaster. Many other events were like this during the trip, one in particular makes me angery. The press followed Khrushchev across the country, no one wanted to miss a hot story like this, but the hundreds of repoters, filmers, and journalists caused problems, especially when Khrushchev visited the farm of Roswell Garst, a corn farmer, who also was a corn geneticist. Garst was "appalled" by the amount of people who came. When they trampled on his corn, and acted like fools around a silage pit, he grew angry, and rightfully so. Here these people were coming on his property, trampling his livelihood, and worst, laughing about it and having a grand old time, anyone would grow furious. He threatened to let his dogs loose on them, and he threw cobs at them. All this, in front of a diplomat from another country. Definitely not the impression that America would want to leave on him. Plenty of things about this trip were odd, but most of them could be explained if you look at it politicaly. First, there was the giving of the model of Lunik II, a symbol of a Russian victory over America in the Space Race, to President Eisenhower. It was definitely a politically charged statement. This contrasts and undermines his later speeches about America and Russia peacefully coexisting. Many of his actions, if seen though the lense of politics, were brilliant manuvers to put America on the defensive, such as his strange insistence to visist Disney Land. He would have known that going there would be a security nightmare, and that on general principle, he would not be allowed to go. Maybe it could be seen as an innocent desire to go see Mickey, if he had not gone public about it, and make a huge stink about it. Doing so makes it clear now that he did it on purpose. Also suspicious was his insistence on meeting with the common people, but with one notable exception, nothing seemed put of the ordinary with it. That expiation was Harry Bridges, a man suspected to have communist connections. Khrushchev seemed to get along with him, and he complimented him, saying he would offer him a job if he could. At the end of this three ring circus, Khrushchev goes to Camp David to have final talks with Eisenhower, however, the talks come to nothing. The whole situation was pure chaos, poisoned by people's personal and political agendas. This was a first for America, no one really knew how to react. The result was an embarrassment to America, and it probably didn't help much to ease tensions between the USSR and the USA.
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In the fall of 1959 the president of the soviet union came for a trip and they made a timeline for what he did in the U.S. the president's name is Nikita Khrushchev. This was during the beginning of the cold war. The president of the US Eisenhower invited him to the white house. The plane that they used for the flight was a specialized plane that made the trip to D.C from Moscow with one tank. But he was warned after they found the there had been cracks in the fuselage of the plane but he said they he didn't want to be seen as a scared person. After landing later that evening, “Khrushchev tours Manhattan with Lodge by car. He would later reflect on his unenthusiastic impressions of the Empire State Building:” “If you've seen one skyscraper, you've seen them all."later that day he said that:“He regrets that he had no opportunity of coming into contact with the ordinary people, the workers, who are the backbone of the life of the city, the producers of its wealth." A reporter said that “Roswell Garst, had been in the Soviet Union several times, attempting to interest not Khrushchev, but the Ministry of Agriculture, in growing corn, maize. Garst himself was not only a corn raiser but also a breeder of seed corn, and a sort of geneticist, and he had his own company which raised and sold seed corn, and he had a particular variety which he thought would go well — I don’t know. He was a very enterprising man; he and his sons had this beautiful farm and a terrific seed company." “But the first trouble began on the trip up to Hyde Park, where he was supposed to go and lay a wreath at the grave of President Roosevelt. President Roosevelt of course was honored, so to speak, in the Soviet Union, he was a great friend of Russia, and if he had only lived, if he had not died everything would have been honky-dory, and so forth. Khrushchev and Eleanor Roosevelt at Hyde Park So he went up there, and Eleanor Roosevelt was there and received him at Hyde Park, and the trouble began right there. The trip had only just begun. This was the first day of the trip, and the question arose as to who was going to be in the pool, because there was a motorcade organized by the New York State Police – the security was extreme of course – and there was a press car, or maybe two, in which the pool would ride. Well, I had nothing to do with the pool; that was up to Joe Reap. But there just wasn’t room for everybody. People were fighting to get into these station wagons, and it was kind of what the kids call these days a heavy scene. It was not well organized. And you know, here were Scotty Reston and all the rest, all these great journalists not only seeing this occur but being victims of it, participating in it, so you knew that sooner or later there was going to be a blast from the press about the whole thing.” I don't know why i found this last quote interesting other than there the things about there being trouble in at the funeral of roosevelt.516 words
ReplyDeleteMr haston my blog i did it but i just for got to publish it so if you need proof i can telly you the exact time a day i created the blog in google docs so thats why it was late
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