Initially, Moscow reacted rather reservedly to this proposal, but by the beginning of the summer, both sides confirmed their decision to hold a meeting of heads of state. The Soviet Union, forced by the leader of the GDR, Walter Ulbricht, to conclude a peace treaty on Germany as soon as possible, sought to enlist the support of the US president before a meeting of the four heads of government of the countries participating in the anti-Hitler coalition on the German problem. In turn, Eisenhower sought to raise the prestige of the Republican administration in the eyes of voters through negotiations with the Soviet side in the light of the 1960 presidential election, in which then Vice President Richard Nixon had to fight the young, energetic and popular Democratic candidate John F. Kennedy.
In June-July 1959, during the trips of First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers Frol Kozlov to the United States and Vice President Richard Nixon to the USSR, an agreement in principle was reached on the mutual exchange of visits by the leaders of the two superpowers.
In preparation for his trip to the United States, Khrushchev unexpectedly decided to speak in person at the opening of the regular session of the United Nations General Assembly, convened in September 1959 in New York. In this regard, it was necessary to shift the dates of the meeting with Eisenhower (it was originally scheduled for the first half of September), as well as to make adjustments to the upcoming visit of the Soviet delegation to China to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the revolution.
Khrushchev's visit to the United States did not bring the expected results - on most of the issues discussed, the positions of the parties practically did not converge. The planned summit meeting on the German problem and Eisenhower's return visit to the USSR did not take place due to the aggravation of Soviet-American relations caused by flights of American spy planes over the territory of the Soviet Union. Nevertheless, the first official visit of the Soviet leader to the United States helped to destroy many stereotypes imposed by the Cold War and to better understand each other between the peoples of the USSR and the United States, becoming a significant event both in the history of Soviet-American relations and in the context of the general weakening of international relations. tensions in the post-war period.
As a result of Khrushchev's American visit to the USSR, a number of books were published containing a description of his trip, speeches, conversations, remarks, remarks, as well as photo illustrations: "To live in peace and friendship" (author - Nikita Khrushchev, Moscow, State Publishing House of Political Literature, 1959 d.), "Face to Face with America" (authors - Alexey Adzhubey, Nikolai Gribachev, Georgy Zhukov, Moscow, State Publishing House of Political Literature, 1960).
The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources
Throughout the history of Soviet-American and Russian-American relations, the heads of the two countries have met more than once. The first meeting of the leaders of the two countries (Stalin and Roosevelt) took place at the Tehran Conference, held from November 28 to December 1, 1943 in Iran. A little later - in Yalta, in 1945, one of the first and very significant curious cases took place, which gave rise to many tales, anecdotes and rumors. However, this is a historical fact. The point was this:
On February 2, 1945, I.V. arrived in the Crimea by a special train. Stalin and V.M. Molotov and immediately went to their residence.
Exactly at the appointed hour, a four-engine C-54 appeared in the air, on board of which was W. Churchill.
He went around the guard of honor. Newsreel footage captured how the corpulent English prime minister carefully peered into the eyes of Soviet soldiers, as if trying to figure out what kind of people they were, where they got such courage from. W. Churchill was met by V.M. Molotov and other officials.
Then an American airliner landed. With the help of a special elevator-cabin, F. Roosevelt was lowered onto the airfield. Two tall soldiers carefully carried him to the Willys, in which he slowly circled the guard of honor. W. Churchill came to meet the American president. From the Soviet side, F. Roosevelt was met by V.M. Molotov and other members of the delegation.
I.V. Stalin was in Yalta, but did not meet either the British prime minister or the American president.
Meeting at the airport of US President FD Roosevelt, who arrived at the Yalta Conference.
It was said that Churchill and Roosevelt were unhappy with Stalin's absence from their meeting. Churchill allegedly told Roosevelt:
“Express our displeasure to the marshal, it is customary to meet guests.”
At a meeting with Roosevelt, Stalin made it clear that this gesture was not accidental on his part: You, the Allies, have been delaying the opening of a second front for so many years, now you have arrived when the Soviet Union does not really need your help, one can cope with Nazi Germany , thereby also helping you, allies. The Red Army was 60 kilometers from Berlin.
Both Roosevelt and Churchill no longer touched on this episode.
Khrushchev and Eisenhower
In September 1959, the first official visit of the head of the CPSU and the head of the Soviet government, Nikita Khrushchev, to the United States took place in the history of Soviet-American relations in connection with the regular session of the UN General Assembly. During the visit, Khrushchev met with US President Dwight Eisenhower several times.
Eisenhower's son, John, decided that when negotiations began at Camp David, Khrushchev would be pleased to listen to Russian melodies, and chose three songs: Black Eyes, Katyusha, and Stenka Razin. John later recalled:
“I coordinated the repertoire with the State Department and received a negative opinion regarding Stenka Razin. The motivation was that it was a melody of tsarist times.”
Eisenhower planned a helicopter overflight of Washington. However, Khrushchev rejected the offer, citing the fact that he did not have confidence in aircraft of this class. Eisenhower expressed regret, adding that he found such flights comfortable and interesting.
"O! Khrushchev exclaimed. “If you are in the same helicopter, of course I will fly!”
Then he ordered to buy three exactly the same cars.
Nikita Khrushchev and Dwight Eisenhower in the USA, 1959
Khrushchev without a tuxedo
Not without incident and during the official dinner at the White House. Khrushchev went to dinner in a suit, categorically refusing to wear a tuxedo, which, in his opinion, was a symbol of capitalism. The Americans decided not to argue with the distinguished guest, but they themselves preferred to be dressed according to the protocol.
Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, Dwight Eisenhower with their wives
Khrushchev to Nixon: “Americans have only the freedom to spend the night under the bridge”
In May 1972, US President Richard Nixon flew to the USSR. It was the first ever official visit by an American president to the Soviet Union. Previously, only Franklin Roosevelt set foot on Soviet soil during the Yalta Conference.
For Nixon himself, this was his second visit to Moscow. He first came in June 1959 as Vice President to arrange Khrushchev's visit to the United States three months later. That trip is remembered mainly for Nixon's trip to the Moscow market and a public skirmish with Khrushchev during a joint tour of the American exhibition.
Nikita Khrushchev and Richard Nixon dispute
One of the main exhibits was a standard house with furniture and household appliances. In the presence of numerous retinues and correspondents, Khrushchev declared that he would not surprise the Soviet people in any way, that American houses were allegedly falling apart in a few years, and that to buy such a house "you need to have a lot of dollars", and ordinary Americans have only "the freedom to spend the night under bridge."
Nixon countered that he himself had grown up in a simple family, helping his father in the shop as a child, and now he was a vice president. The Soviet leader blurted out in response: "All merchants are thieves!"
Nikita Khrushchev and Richard Nixon
During the second visit, Nixon went to the Bolshoi Theater for Swan Lake. Before the third act, when the chandeliers in the hall began to slowly go out, the wife of the Italian correspondent, who was sitting in the stalls, shouted loudly: “Down with the war in Vietnam!” The Soviet leaders were of the same opinion, but they did not tolerate unauthorized antics. Podgorny ordered the lights to be turned on, and he and Nixon stood in the box, causing the audience to rise to their feet and applaud.
Brezhnev and Nixon
Brezhnev was a car lover and, as long as his health allowed, a dashing driver. On the eve of the visit, Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin privately told Nixon: “Leonid Ilyich would very much like to receive a Cadillac Eldorado as a gift. The huge luxury convertible was custom-made in three days and flown to Moscow by US Air Force transport plane.
During a return visit to the United States in 1973, Brezhnev also had his eye on a dark blue Lincoln Continental with black velor upholstery, the same one that Nixon himself drove. A car with the inscription on the dashboard “For a good memory. Best Wishes” were presented to the guest at Camp David.
Nixon gave Brezhnev a Cadillac and a Lincoln
The fact of receiving gifts in the USSR was not advertised. Knowledgeable people were most impressed by the fact that the US president, it turns out, could not give anything to a foreign partner with his power, but was forced to ask for money from businessmen - supporters of the Republican Party.
Brezhnev also managed to meet with another US President, Gerald Ford. It happened in November 1974 in Vladivostok, where they signed a communiqué on the reduction of strategic offensive weapons.
The summit meeting was a success. But not without curiosities. After the end of the meeting, a speech by Leonid Brezhnev was planned, and it was to be broadcast in all the sanatoriums where the journalists and other personnel who provided the meeting were located.
Gerald Ford and Leonid Brezhnev
CPSU General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev and US President Gerald Ford. Photo: Kalle Kultala
Gennady Melnikov, head of the regional production and technical communications department in 1974: “And suddenly Kissinger arrives and starts a press conference at the sanatorium of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Suddenly a call, they say that we need to turn off the microphones, Brezhnev's speech. I return to the hall - American journalists shout, stomp, Kissinger turns his head. Brezhnev says. They do not understand, they do not know that this is Brezhnev. I switched to the microphones and the press conference began. They call me, they say - come on Brezhnev, and I say, I'm not a diplomat.
A few minutes later, the news of the signing of the communiqué and the joint statement on the further limitation of strategic offensive arms became known to the world community.
On September 15, 1959, the first official visit of the head of the CPSU and the head of the Soviet government, Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, to the United States began in the history of Soviet-American relations, which lasted 13 days.
As expected, one of the main issues discussed during the negotiations was the German problem. In fact, on the German question, the USA and the USSR declared positions that they had long ago declared, but did not reach a compromise.
Although both N.S. Khrushchev and D. Eisenhower talked a lot about the great significance of the visit of the Soviet leader to the United States, about the fact that the parties began to understand each other better, about the warming of the international climate, etc., the negotiations were marked by the fact that On most of the issues discussed, the positions of the parties practically did not converge. Attempts by the Soviet delegation to involve negotiating partners
in the discussion of the Soviet proposals on general and complete disarmament, with which N.S. Khrushchev spoke on September 18 from the rostrum of the UN General Assembly, were met very coolly by the American side. D. Eisenhower only noted that he instructed his employees to study this proposal in detail. Also, Soviet statements about the termination of tests were left without comment.
nuclear weapons.
The discussion of the problems of trade and economic relations between the two countries also ended in vain. When asked by the Soviet side about the removal of discriminatory restrictions imposed by the US Congress on trade with the USSR and other socialist countries, the American participants in the talks evasively answered that the mood in Congress depends on the mood in society, and only
reducing tensions between countries may lead to the repeal of discriminatory laws. For his part, N.S. Khrushchev agreed to negotiate on Lend-Lease settlements only at the level of the amounts that the USSR was ready to pay (and which did not suit the United States at all), noting that a purely commercial approach is not applicable here. Soviet delegation
refused to link the issues of normalizing Soviet-American trade with the settlement of Lend-Lease payments.
Attempts by the Soviet leader to defend the position of the PRC ran into an extremely harsh reaction from the American partners in the negotiations. K. Herter and US Permanent Representative to the UN G. Lodge resolutely stated that "China is an aggressor" and declared "outlawed" by the UN for its "aggression in Korea." D. Eisenhower was just as implacable.
What the Soviet leader really succeeded in was getting to know the country. N.S. Khrushchev managed to visit the 20th Century Fox film studio, the National Press Club in Washington and the New York Economic Club, speak on American television, at meetings with representatives of business and public circles in San Francisco, Pittsburgh, chamber of the city of Des Moines (Iowa), etc. N.S. Khrushchev paid special attention to the American farmer R. Garst, with whom he had been in touch since 1955 and whose experience in the field of progressive cultivation of corn N.S. Khrushchev repeatedly referred both during his trips to the agricultural regions of the USSR, and at meetings of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU, devoted to agricultural issues.
In numerous speeches that the garrulous Soviet leader delivered to an American audience, two theses were constantly present: about the need to improve Soviet-American relations and about the increased economic and military power of the USSR. The second thesis was illustrated, as a rule, by stories about successful launches of Soviet space rockets (as if by order on the eve of the visit, on September 14, the Soviet interplanetary station Luna-2 with the pennant of the USSR reached the surface of the Moon for the first time, and N.S. Khrushchev the very next day presented a copy of the "lunar" pennant to D. Eisenhower), as well as the TU-114 aircraft, on which the head of the USSR, causing a sensation in the United States, made an incredible non-stop flight on the Moscow-Washington route in those years. The latter, however, did not prevent the Soviet leader from privately asking D. Eisenhower
to allocate two helicopters of American design for the Soviet government, since helicopters made in the USSR were not very reliable.
The Soviet delegation included A. A. Gromyko, writer M. A. Sholokhov and some other officials. Khrushchev's wife Nina Petrovna and some members of his family were also here. Tu-114 is a new aircraft, and Khrushchev invited the designer A. N. Tupolev to fly to the USA. Tupolev refused due to poor health, but offered to take his son A. A. Tupolev. “The plane is new, and my son will be the guarantee that everything is in order and you will fly across the ocean.”
After Khrushchev's trip to America, the number of adherents of communism is unlikely to have increased. But Khrushchev's personal popularity among Americans and around the world increased markedly. US citizens liked the spontaneity, activity, assertiveness, diligence, resourcefulness, simplicity and coarse humor of Khrushchev - "Communist No. 1", as the American press dubbed him.
Khrushchev was not lost under any circumstances and showed himself to be a good polemicist. Speaking at the Washington Press Club, in response to provocative questions from journalists, he said: "If you give me dead rats, then I can give you a lot of dead cats."
The whole world followed the talks in the USA with great attention. Perhaps the only country where Khrushchev's visit to the United States was openly distrusted and suspicious was socialist China.
Subsequent events showed that much of what the Soviet leader counted on was not destined to come true. Despite all efforts, a summit meeting of the leaders of the four countries. did not take place. After a series of negotiations and consultations, such a meeting was nevertheless scheduled for May 1960 in France, but it was canceled at the last moment. The formal reason for this was the flight of American spy planes over the USSR on April 9 and May 1, 1960, as well as D. Eisenhower's May statement on this matter. N. S. Khrushchev was especially outraged by the fact that after the second plane was shot down near Sverdlovsk, and the American reconnaissance pilot G. Powers surrendered, the president, justifying the facts of air espionage, said that military aircraft flights over the territory of the USSR and other socialist countries "are aimed at ensuring the security of the United States" and are "the national policy of the United States." Subsequently, Eisenhower canceled flights of military aircraft over the USSR, but did not apologize, because, as G. Macmillan explained to N.S. Khrushchev, the head of the American state could not “condemn
himself and his people."
It should be noted that the flights of American super-high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft that photographed Soviet territory took place back in the days of Stalin. These planes even flew over Leningrad and Moscow, sometimes during the most solemn Soviet holidays. The Soviet press did not report anything about these invasions, which were humiliating for the USSR, since the USSR did not then have the means to prevent such flights. The best Soviet fighters rose to a height of no more than 16 kilometers, a height of 20 kilometers turned out to be unattainable even for anti-aircraft artillery. Military experts reported to Stalin that the best way to stop American reconnaissance flights would be to create a special anti-aircraft missile "land-
air". This partly explains the early development of rocket science in the USSR.
September 15 marked the 50th anniversary of the first official visit in the history of Soviet-American relations of the head of the CPSU and the head of the Soviet government to the United States.
On September 15-27, 1959, the first official visit of the head of the CPSU and the head of the Soviet government, Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, to the United States in the history of Soviet-American relations took place.
The issue of a summit meeting appeared on the agenda in early 1959 during an unofficial visit to the United States by Anastas Mikoyan, a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU, and his meetings with the American political elite, including President Dwight Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Dulles. The trip was prompted by the need to defuse relations between the two countries after the sharp speeches of the Soviet leader at the end of 1958 on the German and Berlin issues. Mikoyan managed to relieve the tension and return to Moscow with new proposals from the US leadership, one of which was the desire to invite Khrushchev to America to discuss urgent problems at the highest level.
Initially, Moscow reacted rather reservedly to this proposal, but by the beginning of the summer, both sides confirmed their decision to hold a meeting of heads of state. The Soviet Union, forced by the leader of the GDR, Walter Ulbricht, to conclude a peace treaty on Germany as soon as possible, sought to enlist the support of the US president before a meeting of the four heads of government of the countries participating in the anti-Hitler coalition on the German problem. In turn, Eisenhower sought to raise the prestige of the Republican administration in the eyes of voters through negotiations with the Soviet side in the light of the 1960 presidential election, in which then Vice President Richard Nixon had to fight the young, energetic and popular Democratic candidate John F. Kennedy.
In June-July 1959, during the trips of First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers Frol Kozlov to the United States and Vice President Richard Nixon to the USSR, an agreement in principle was reached on the mutual exchange of visits by the leaders of the two superpowers.
In preparation for his trip to the United States, Khrushchev unexpectedly decided to speak in person at the opening of the regular session of the United Nations General Assembly, convened in September 1959 in New York. In this regard, it was necessary to shift the dates of the meeting with Eisenhower (it was originally scheduled for the first half of September), as well as to make adjustments to the upcoming visit of the Soviet delegation to China to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the revolution.
The world mass media showed great interest in the forthcoming visit . The US State Department issued identity cards to at least 2,500 journalists and photojournalists in the American and foreign press, representatives of radio, newsreel and magazines (of which 41 were Soviet journalists). About 750 certificates fell on the share of the radio and television system. According to the American magazine Life, the number of journalists was at least 5 thousand people. No other Republican or Democratic election campaign has been covered in print or on television on such a large scale.
The list of gifts taken by the USSR delegation with them to America was very diverse. Along with the traditional items - granular caviar, a set of wine and vodka products, caskets and nesting dolls - it also included carpets, guns, sets of long-playing records, books by Mikhail Sholokhov in English and much more.
The official visit of the head of the CPSU and the head of the Soviet government to the United States began on September 15, 1959 and lasted 13 days. During the visit, Khrushchev met with Eisenhower several times - on September 15, 25, 26 and 27, and two of these conversations were held face to face.
One of the main issues discussed during the visit was the German problem. The Soviet Union was ready to postpone the conclusion of a peace treaty with both German states, but threatened to unilaterally conclude a peace treaty with the GDR if the negotiations failed, which would automatically lead to the loss of the occupying rights of the Western powers throughout Berlin. For its part, the United States stated that they would not object to the conclusion of a peace treaty between the USSR and the GDR, however, the Allied troops should remain in West Berlin. A compromise on the German question was never found.
The discussion of trade and economic relations between the two countries also ended in vain. The Soviet delegation was unable to move forward on the issue of lifting by the US Congress of discriminatory sanctions on trade with the USSR. In turn, Khrushchev refused to link the issue of normalizing Soviet-American trade with the settlement of Lend-Lease payments (the amounts that Moscow was ready to pay did not suit Washington at all).
Negotiations on issues of US-China relations, China's representation in the UN and the situation around Taiwan were also unsuccessful. Attempts by the Soviet leader to defend the position of Beijing ran into an extremely harsh reaction from the American partners in the negotiations.
On September 18, Khrushchev's scheduled speech at a meeting of the UN General Assembly took place, during which they were invited to start discussing the Soviet proposals for general and complete disarmament. This initiative was received by the American side rather coolly. The proposals of the head of the Soviet government to stop nuclear weapons tests were left without comment by the Americans.
The discussion of a number of other issues also ended without much results. In response to Khrushchev's proposal to conclude a political treaty between the USSR and the United States, Secretary of State Christian Herter said that the American side was ready to consider only a consular agreement for the time being, and it would be possible to return to a political treaty only as bilateral relations developed further.
There were a number of discussions on exchanges in the field of culture, science and technology, the outcome of which was also not too optimistic.
During the visit, Khrushchev managed to visit the 20th Century Fox film studio in Los Angeles, the National Press Club in Washington and the New York Economic Club, speak on American television, and meet with representatives of business and public circles in San Francisco and Pittsburgh. , in the Des Moines Chamber of Commerce (Iowa), etc. When the American intelligence services said that they could not guarantee the safety of the head of the USSR when he visited Disneyland, Khrushchev threatened to interrupt the trip if the situation did not change.
The Soviet leader paid special attention to the American farmer Roswell Garst, with whom he had been in contact since 1955 and whose experience in the field of corn cultivation he repeatedly referred to both during his trips to the agricultural regions of the USSR and at meetings of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU devoted to agricultural issues. economy.
Two theses were constantly present in Khrushchev's speeches on American soil: the need to improve Soviet-American relations and the increased economic and military power of the USSR. During meetings with representatives of American society, the head of the USSR often had to answer "provocative" questions (about intervention in the Hungarian events, about the process of de-Stalinization, etc.), as well as comment on his phrase "We will bury you" (in the American press - "We will let's bury"), said to American diplomats at a reception in the Kremlin in November 1956. The full phrase was as follows: "Like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you." In his later speeches, Khrushchev clarified that he did not mean literally digging the grave with a shovel, but only that capitalism would destroy his own working class.
According to eyewitnesses, Khrushchev generally managed to get out of difficult situations with honor, for which he even received praise during meetings with congressional leaders and members of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee. The senators declared that the head of the Soviet government was "a good polemicist."
Khrushchev's visit to the United States did not bring the expected results - on most of the issues discussed, the positions of the parties practically did not converge. The planned summit meeting on the German problem and Eisenhower's return visit to the USSR did not take place due to the aggravation of Soviet-American relations caused by flights of American spy planes over the territory of the Soviet Union.
Nevertheless, the first official visit of the Soviet leader to the United States helped to destroy many stereotypes imposed by the Cold War and to better understand each other between the peoples of the USSR and the United States, becoming a significant event both in the history of Soviet-American relations and in the context of the general weakening of international relations. tensions in the post-war period.
As a result of Khrushchev's American visit to the USSR, a number of books were published containing a description of his trip, speeches, conversations, remarks, remarks, as well as photo illustrations: "To live in peace and friendship" (author - Nikita Khrushchev, Moscow, State Publishing House of Political Literature, 1959 d.), "Face to Face with America" (authors - Alexey Adzhubey, Nikolai Gribachev, Georgy Zhukov, Moscow, State Publishing House of Political Literature, 1960).
The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources
September 15 marked the 50th anniversary of the first official visit in the history of Soviet-American relations of the head of the CPSU and the head of the Soviet government to the United States.
On September 15-27, 1959, the first official visit of the head of the CPSU and the head of the Soviet government, Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev, to the United States in the history of Soviet-American relations took place.
The issue of a summit meeting appeared on the agenda in early 1959 during an unofficial visit to the United States by Anastas Mikoyan, a member of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU, and his meetings with the American political elite, including President Dwight Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Dulles. The trip was prompted by the need to defuse relations between the two countries after the sharp speeches of the Soviet leader at the end of 1958 on the German and Berlin issues. Mikoyan managed to relieve the tension and return to Moscow with new proposals from the US leadership, one of which was the desire to invite Khrushchev to America to discuss urgent problems at the highest level.
Initially, Moscow reacted rather reservedly to this proposal, but by the beginning of the summer, both sides confirmed their decision to hold a meeting of heads of state. The Soviet Union, forced by the leader of the GDR, Walter Ulbricht, to conclude a peace treaty on Germany as soon as possible, sought to enlist the support of the US president before a meeting of the four heads of government of the countries participating in the anti-Hitler coalition on the German problem. In turn, Eisenhower sought to raise the prestige of the Republican administration in the eyes of voters through negotiations with the Soviet side in the light of the 1960 presidential election, in which then Vice President Richard Nixon had to fight the young, energetic and popular Democratic candidate John F. Kennedy.
In June-July 1959, during the trips of First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers Frol Kozlov to the United States and Vice President Richard Nixon to the USSR, an agreement in principle was reached on the mutual exchange of visits by the leaders of the two superpowers.
In preparation for his trip to the United States, Khrushchev unexpectedly decided to speak in person at the opening of the regular session of the United Nations General Assembly, convened in September 1959 in New York. In this regard, it was necessary to shift the dates of the meeting with Eisenhower (it was originally scheduled for the first half of September), as well as to make adjustments to the upcoming visit of the Soviet delegation to China to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the revolution.
The world mass media showed great interest in the forthcoming visit . The US State Department issued identity cards to at least 2,500 journalists and photojournalists in the American and foreign press, representatives of radio, newsreel and magazines (of which 41 were Soviet journalists). About 750 certificates fell on the share of the radio and television system. According to the American magazine Life, the number of journalists was at least 5 thousand people. No other Republican or Democratic election campaign has been covered in print or on television on such a large scale.
The list of gifts taken by the USSR delegation with them to America was very diverse. Along with the traditional items - granular caviar, a set of wine and vodka products, caskets and nesting dolls - it also included carpets, guns, sets of long-playing records, books by Mikhail Sholokhov in English and much more.
The official visit of the head of the CPSU and the head of the Soviet government to the United States began on September 15, 1959 and lasted 13 days. During the visit, Khrushchev met with Eisenhower several times - on September 15, 25, 26 and 27, and two of these conversations were held face to face.
One of the main issues discussed during the visit was the German problem. The Soviet Union was ready to postpone the conclusion of a peace treaty with both German states, but threatened to unilaterally conclude a peace treaty with the GDR if the negotiations failed, which would automatically lead to the loss of the occupying rights of the Western powers throughout Berlin. For its part, the United States stated that they would not object to the conclusion of a peace treaty between the USSR and the GDR, however, the Allied troops should remain in West Berlin. A compromise on the German question was never found.
The discussion of trade and economic relations between the two countries also ended in vain. The Soviet delegation was unable to move forward on the issue of lifting by the US Congress of discriminatory sanctions on trade with the USSR. In turn, Khrushchev refused to link the issue of normalizing Soviet-American trade with the settlement of Lend-Lease payments (the amounts that Moscow was ready to pay did not suit Washington at all).
Negotiations on issues of US-China relations, China's representation in the UN and the situation around Taiwan were also unsuccessful. Attempts by the Soviet leader to defend the position of Beijing ran into an extremely harsh reaction from the American partners in the negotiations.
On September 18, Khrushchev's scheduled speech at a meeting of the UN General Assembly took place, during which they were invited to start discussing the Soviet proposals for general and complete disarmament. This initiative was received by the American side rather coolly. The proposals of the head of the Soviet government to stop nuclear weapons tests were left without comment by the Americans.
The discussion of a number of other issues also ended without much results. In response to Khrushchev's proposal to conclude a political treaty between the USSR and the United States, Secretary of State Christian Herter said that the American side was ready to consider only a consular agreement for the time being, and it would be possible to return to a political treaty only as bilateral relations developed further.
There were a number of discussions on exchanges in the field of culture, science and technology, the outcome of which was also not too optimistic.
During the visit, Khrushchev managed to visit the 20th Century Fox film studio in Los Angeles, the National Press Club in Washington and the New York Economic Club, speak on American television, and meet with representatives of business and public circles in San Francisco and Pittsburgh. , in the Des Moines Chamber of Commerce (Iowa), etc. When the American intelligence services said that they could not guarantee the safety of the head of the USSR when he visited Disneyland, Khrushchev threatened to interrupt the trip if the situation did not change.
The Soviet leader paid special attention to the American farmer Roswell Garst, with whom he had been in contact since 1955 and whose experience in the field of corn cultivation he repeatedly referred to both during his trips to the agricultural regions of the USSR and at meetings of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU devoted to agricultural issues. economy.
Two theses were constantly present in Khrushchev's speeches on American soil: the need to improve Soviet-American relations and the increased economic and military power of the USSR. During meetings with representatives of American society, the head of the USSR often had to answer "provocative" questions (about intervention in the Hungarian events, about the process of de-Stalinization, etc.), as well as comment on his phrase "We will bury you" (in the American press - "We will let's bury"), said to American diplomats at a reception in the Kremlin in November 1956. The full phrase was as follows: "Like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you." In his later speeches, Khrushchev clarified that he did not mean literally digging the grave with a shovel, but only that capitalism would destroy his own working class.
According to eyewitnesses, Khrushchev generally managed to get out of difficult situations with honor, for which he even received praise during meetings with congressional leaders and members of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee. The senators declared that the head of the Soviet government was "a good polemicist."
Khrushchev's visit to the United States did not bring the expected results - on most of the issues discussed, the positions of the parties practically did not converge. The planned summit meeting on the German problem and Eisenhower's return visit to the USSR did not take place due to the aggravation of Soviet-American relations caused by flights of American spy planes over the territory of the Soviet Union.
Nevertheless, the first official visit of the Soviet leader to the United States helped to destroy many stereotypes imposed by the Cold War and to better understand each other between the peoples of the USSR and the United States, becoming a significant event both in the history of Soviet-American relations and in the context of the general weakening of international relations. tensions in the post-war period.
As a result of Khrushchev's American visit to the USSR, a number of books were published containing a description of his trip, speeches, conversations, remarks, remarks, as well as photo illustrations: "To live in peace and friendship" (author - Nikita Khrushchev, Moscow, State Publishing House of Political Literature, 1959 d.), "Face to Face with America" (authors - Alexey Adzhubey, Nikolai Gribachev, Georgy Zhukov, Moscow, State Publishing House of Political Literature, 1960).
The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources
