"I invited myself!" - with such headlines, the American media dubbed the first visit of N. S. Khrushchev to the United States. The date in world diplomacy is outstanding, since no one could even imagine then that something like this could happen. The USA and the USSR were number one enemies at that time, ready to destroy each other with nuclear strikes at any moment. Khrushchev's visit to the United States (1959) can be briefly summed up in one phrase: a one-man theater in which Nikita Sergeevich played his leading 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. Khrushchev's first visit to the USA was. Year - 1959, shortly before that, at the XX Congress of the CPSU in 1953, it was announced the inevitability of the next world war.
In 1956, the USSR announced a new military doctrine - the massive use of nuclear missile potential duringfighting.
In 1957, our country was the first in the world to test a ballistic intercontinental missile. The event is simply terrifyingly grandiose for the whole world in general and for the United States 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 of Pearl Harbor has been experienced, conclusions have been drawn, ordinary Americans after the victory in World War II are confident that no one in the world can threaten their security anymore. 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 a devastating effect of destruction. These bombs still need to be delivered by aircraft 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 then there are headlines in all the newspapers that a huge missile appeared in the USSR, capable of striking the center of New York from anywhere in the world, flying at a height unattainable for air defense. It turns out that the American defensive shield, created for many years, will not save the United States from aggression. The capitalist countries plunged into a state of panic fear of the threat of "crazy Russians" - these were the words the Western press of that time called us.
And at this terrible time for the Western world, a message was published that Khrushchev's first friendly visit to the United States would soon take place. This date was celebrated as a holiday that gavehope for millions of Americans that maybe the Russians are not as “crazy” as the press had previously portrayed them, and will not destroy the West with one nuclear strike of ballistic missiles.
Invitation
Khrushchev's first visit to the United States was at the invitation of US President Eisenhower. The latter knew that the Soviet leader was interested in Western culture and the economy, since even then there was an economic lag between the USSR and the USA.
The demonization of the Soviet Union by Western media took place a little ahead of time. Khrushchev, in the first years of his reign, tried to get along with the capitalist countries, he wanted to "peacefully coexist with them." However, the secretary general did not rule out the possibility of a new world war, as he was far from stupid and well remembered the lessons of history, as well as the deceit of Western diplomacy.
Purpose of invitation
President Eisenhower wanted to regulate the status of Berlin, as the Soviet leadership was no longer going to tolerate "occupation zones" in this city. From the Soviet zone of Germany, a new state was created - the GDR - with its capital in Berlin. Our leadership did not want to tolerate the “presence of capitalists” in this city. In the spring and summer of 1959, negotiations were held between foreign ministers in Geneva, but they ended in vain.
A personal invitation to Khrushchev's visit to the United States was brought from America by Deputy Prime Minister of the USSR Frol Kozlov, who went there to attend the opening of the Soviet exhibition.
“I confess I didn’t even believe it at first. Ourrelations were so strained that the invitation for a friendly visit by the head of the Soviet government and the first secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU was simply incredible!” - Nikita Sergeevich later recalled.
The American press also could not believe it, but soon details appeared that put everything in its place: President Eisenhower instructed Robert Murphy, an employee of the State Department (US Department of Foreign Affairs), to convey to Kozlov an invitation to N. Khrushchev's visit to the USA. The obligatory condition of the visit was that the leader of the USSR 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 we translate these actions from diplomatic language into ordinary, we get the following: the Americans had to keep their zone in Berlin, but in Geneva, our diplomats rejected all their proposals. After that, the US leader himself tried to negotiate with Khrushchev, allegedly making a grand gesture to our general secretary, inviting him on a friendly visit. In the conditions of the upcoming Cold War, such an invitation should be rejected, but nevertheless, some kind of detente was to come. However, Khrushchev was distinguished by unpredictability and expressiveness both in domestic and foreign policy. He accepted this invitation with the words: "Well, then I'll stay there for a week or two." Eisenhower had no choice but to agree to this.
How to ensuresecurity?
The upcoming visit of Khrushchev to the United States turned out to be a real headache for the Soviet secret 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 because they had no relevant experience.
Some members of the Soviet delegation wanted to ask the Americans to put up tapestries of armed American soldiers along Khrushchev's route from the military airfield to the allotted residence.
Others objected, as this measure would not get rid of the assassination if Western politicians decided to kill the leader of the USSR. In the end, they decided that they should completely entrust the protection of the American intelligence services and trust the security assurances of their politicians.
How to get to USA?
Today, a flight from one country to another is considered commonplace, and half a century ago there were no such aircraft in our country that could fly 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 aircraft, 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 fully tested, so no one could guarantee the safety of the first persons of the state, except for one person - the designer of the model Andrei Tupolev. He guaranteed the reliability of the aircraft and, as proof of his words, proposed to includeas a member of the crew of his own son Alexei. The choice was made in favor of Tu-114.
Why did Khrushchev agree to the trip?
For what reason did Khrushchev visit the USA? 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 already in this generation." Inscriptions about the imminent approach of "paradise" 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, they did not know about it then, and the Soviet leader wanted to see the “decaying West” with his own eyes.
General Secretary as a spy?
Some tend to believe that Khrushchev's visit to the US was intended to "spy" on the competing system, as it became intuitively clear that the West was beginning to outstrip us technologically. Eastern Europe understood this already one hundred percent, and in 1956 there was an uprising in Hungary against the communist regime. Supporters of the “plagiarism idea” cite as arguments that Khrushchev did not pay attention to the inventions that Western politicians showed him, and tried to “peep” something “secret”, because he believed that the things shown by the Americans were not of particular interest. So, our leader "caught the secret" of a hamburger, a hot dog, a self-service service, storage boxes 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 into "sausage in the dough" and "cutlet in the dough", and the Soviet people were sure that we came up with it. And our leader finally “fell in love” with corn, thinking that he had finally found Eldorado, the secret of the success of the capitalist world on one of the farms in Iowa. It was the “corn story” during the trip that created the myth that Khrushchev allegedly decided to experiment with this crop there. In fact, there was talk of a massive corn farming campaign before the trip. Even before he was appointed to the country's top leadership position, Khrushchev liked to call himself a "maize man" and often introduced various projects for the mass introduction of this crop. The reason for such a “love” for this vegetable was that in 1949 corn saved the Ukrainian Soviet Republic from another “Holodomor” when Khrushchev was the party secretary general in this republic. In other regions of the USSR, famine nevertheless happened due to crop failure and lack of reserves. However, Khrushchev's visit to the United States 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 the Soviet people cursed the General Secretary in the kitchen, chewing corn bread instead of wheat. In fairness, let's say that today the Russian Ministry of Agriculture approved the experiments of Nikita Khrushchev on the introduction of corn into the national economy, as it increases the productivity of meat and dairy farming. But he also admits that“it is not necessary, of course, to sow 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, trying at the same time to discern the secrets of the West, and at the same time to 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 world's first computers based on a transistor of a high level of reliability and speed appeared, which the US Air Force found it possible to use even in an air defense early warning system. Khrushchev was not particularly impressed, since work on improving the computer was carried out in our country, and the "corn" 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 the world leader in the production of computing equipment.
But Khrushchev was impressed by another invention - self-service in the canteen. Of course, the Secretary General did not like to show his surprise and constantly asserted that "it is better in the USSR." However, many understood that Khrushchev was being disingenuous.
In Hollywood
Khrushchev's visit to the USA in 1959 was also marked by his appearance in Hollywood. The film company "XX Century Fox" arranged a magnificent lunch for 400 people in honor of our leader. The excitement was such that only celebrities were invited to it without their soul mates, since there were no places for everyoneenough.
Hollywood at that time was traumatized by the "witch hunt" - the fight against the propaganda of communism in the United States, so many of the guests were seized with anxiety. However, almost all famous actors, directors, politicians, playwrights and others took part in the lunch: Bob Hope, Francis Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, John F. Kennedy and many others.
Some, such as Bing Crosby and Ronald Reagan, defiantly rejected the invitation as a sign of their protest against the socialist regime. Others were simply afraid for their fate and did not go to the meeting, since they were already being investigated by the commission on un-American activities. Among these 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 "Can-Can". The organizers specially chose a particularly piquant fragment of the future film. Dancers ran out to 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 thought about such scenes. Our leader called such a genre “obscene”, and he allegedly did not fix his attention on them. However, photographs of journalists say otherwise.
At a meeting with trade union organizations, Khrushchev will nevertheless express his indignation at the fact that "honest artists" should "lift up their skirts" for the sake of a "spoiled public." And then our leader did not missopportunities to emphasize that “we don’t need such “freedom”” and we “prefer to think freely” and not “look at the asses”. However, the Soviet leader did not rest on this either: he began to parody the dancers from the film, exposing his ass to the public. At least, this is how one of the American journalists, Saul Bellow, who covered Khrushchev's visit to the United States, wrote about it. It was indeed a memorable year for him, and he often reminisced about these events throughout his life.
N. Khrushchev's visit to the USA: meeting with trade unions
The real disappointment for our leader was the meeting with trade union organizations in the US. He assumed that on it he would meet with his allies in the struggle against the capitalist world. Someone who, but simple "hard workers" should hate the "oppressors and enslavers." However, he was mistaken: the leader of the largest trade union association, W alter Reiter, criticized the entire socialist system of the USSR. Khrushchev tried to retort and accused him of "treason to the working class", but Reiter told Nikita Sergeevich directly to his face that he was not at all fighting for socialism in the country, but was only in favor of improving the lives of workers.
Later, after seeing Reiter's income, Khrushchev will hint that the capitalists have bribed all the union leaders in the US.
Deader than a dead cat
In general, Khrushchev's visit to the USA (1959) was accompanied by numerous provocations, irony, and sarcasm on the part of the American public. The most unpleasant questions for our leader were thoserelated to the Hungarian uprising. He described them as "deader than a dead cat", hinting that these events are long in the past, and journalists are still raising this topic.
Second ride
Khrushchev's first visit to the USA is a memorable date, of course, but it was not the only trip of our leader to "ideological enemies". It would seem that after what our leader suffered in the United States 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, where he criticized the capitalist expansion of the West in Africa. On it, he promised to show the whole world "Kuzkin's mother." Frightened Americans translated this phrase “we will bury you”, and in the eyes of the Western world the Soviet leader turned into an inadequate dictator, ready to destroy the whole world. After that, another planned friendly visit of Khrushchev to the USA (1961) did not take place, and the idiom "Kuzkin's mother" began to refer to the thermonuclear "Tsar Bomb" that the USSR tested after the General Assembly.
