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Maybe the director and scriptwriters of "Death of Stalin" should make a "Khrushchev in America" movie, a spin-off featuring Steve Buscemi as Khruschev again and his shenanigans in the states XD
Khrushchev did not understand what was happening. Nixon showed vividly in 1959, how misguided Khrushchev really was. Khrushchev was kicked out as Soviet Leader because he had very poor economic policies.
It's been said, that although many Americans were sceptical or even hostile towards this visit of the First Communist, the curiosity and novelty aspect won - people did line up to the streets when Khrushchev entourage drove by, journalists flocked to meet him etc. And Krhushchev also turned out to be far funnier than everyone expected. For example this meeting at the National Press Club elevated his popularity - not in the sense, that the journalists or the public would turn to communism, but in the sense that everyone noticed Khrushchev intended or unintended wits, his ability to strike back verbally and his general normality - that this character is no monster but a human being with whom one can talk. At least in that sense the trip was a success. And it made a huge impact on the Soviet Union (the self serving supermarkets were mentioned in the video) but also Khrushchev personally - the chairman departed just shortly after returning from the United States to the trip to China, where he was greeted very frostily - something, that made him compare his visit to the USA. Seeing how the purported ally China deals with him and comparing it how he was greeted by the purported enemy the United States, had certainly a big impact on the outcome of the already ongoing Sino-Soviet split. But a great video, as always! Although I new most of it, I hadn't seen many of the video clips shown here. Thank You!
@@可爱包-c4v The civil war was over by the 1950s. The reason our countries split was because of resource and border disputes in both Mongolia and Siberia.
I think Khrushchev also said that he hoped that US and Soviet Union relations would return to FDR levels after the victory of JFK in the 1960 election. This lead to the Vienna Summit of 1961 between the two.
My uncle was a tool and die specialist for John Deere in Des Moines, Iowa and in the 1970s he was part of a team that helped host a Soviet delegation that was to learn about US farming methods. A large shipment of Tractors and Combines were shipped to the USSR. While the delegation was in the US, a lot of the Soviet reps brought crates of Soviet goods (vodka, cigarettes, etc) that they could trade for US goods. Many traded for American liquor, blue jeans, music records, etc that they could take back with them to the USSR and in turn trade with. My uncle to this very day still prefers Russian vodka over any other spirit. 😂
I still prefer Russian Standard Vodka (the only widely available Russian Vodka I can get) to any other vodka. After all, who else would know good vodka but the Russians?
Fun Fact: Khrushchev while touring the US met John Wayne and the two had an alcohol drinking contest. Wayne with Tequila. Khrushchev with Vodka. It ended in a draw. My compliments to all those who made this video a reality.
Kruschev in America is one of my favorite Cold War episodes. I think it's funny how Hollywood was negative, maybe because of their reputation as being a communist hotbed.
This was only a few years after McCarthy and the Blacklist, so a lot of the Communists were either driven out of Hollywood or still working under fake names.
I recall that the cancelled visit to Disneyland was discussed in a Defunctland (defunct theme park rides yt channel) video on the submarine voyage ride there. Walt Diseney was dissapointed that he did not have a chance to show off his ride to the Soviet leader.
It seems that Nikita Sergeevich liked to talk about sausages. He also said to the Americans: "We make [intercontinental ballistic] missiles like sausages" In combination with the shortage of sausages in the USSR, this gave rise to a joke: - When Khrushchev said that the Soviet Union was making intercontinental missiles like sausages, there were only 4 such missiles in the country. - And how many sausages?
Right now I'm reading Serhii Plokhy's The Man with the Poison Gun: A Cold War Spy Story, the events take place in 1957 and there are SAUSAGES AGAIN. "Dräger/Lehmann was carrying more than a thousand West German marks, and there were two cans of Frankfurt sausages in his luggage. He seemed ready for any eventuality, including a sudden East German takeover of West Germany and the disappearance of food supplies from West German stores. The documents, money, and sausages had been given to Stashinsky at Karlshorst. They told him to use his Western passport for the flight to West Germany, and the East German one thereafter. If he was caught, he should declare himself an East German citizen, which would presumably improve his chances of returning to the Eastern bloc. The most incriminating piece of evidence in his luggage were the sausages. He had two tins of them, but only one actually contained sausages. The other had been opened and redesigned by KGB technicians at Karlshorst to conceal his weapon: the spray pistol. The weapon was wrapped in cotton wool and placed in a metal cylinder. The cylinder was then placed in the tin, which was filled with water. Both the weapon and the cylinder were made of aluminum, and the weight of the fake tin was the same as that of the real one, with a special mark on the fake tin to distinguish it. Other than that, they looked identical."
Would be interesting to see an alt-history scenario explored where that U2 hadn't been shot down, and the de-escalation of the Cold War had progressed.
I've always thought of the symbolic ending of the cold war occurring a few years after the 'official' end that was marked by the collapse of the Soviet Union. The symbolic end to me was when Gorbachev appeared in a pizza hut commercial. Seriously - the former head of the Soviet communist party and head of the soviet state making some extra money by working with an American capitalist pizza franchise. I was a kid in the 1980s and remembered when the Soviet Union as the ultimate 'evil' but still badass communist empire that was nearly as powerful as we were and had a shitload of nuclear weapons pointed at us. And then their leader ends up in a freaking Pizza Hut commercial...like WTF??? That is like Satan himself taking a break from tormenting souls in hell and teaching a bunch of kids about Jesus, the bible, and the golden rule at a catholic Sunday school.
Gorbachev filmed the Pizza Hut commercial in 1997, 6 years after the fall of the Soviet Union; and it has never been aired in Russia. Read further if you'd like: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorbachev_Pizza_Hut_commercial
@@Stephen._.Chapman I would have sworn that commercial aired earlier, at least while I was in high school (class of '96), probably while I was in 9th or 10th grade.
Just a slight correction, Luna 2, as planned, impacted the Moon not landed, that would have to wait until Luna 9 in 1966. The TU-114 that carried Khrushchev, was still under testing, it was however the most advanced Soviet airliner then with the range. Still, there were technicians on board monitoring it, a line of ships along the route if things went bad. I can recommend 'Red Plenty' by Francis Spufford, an innovative account of attempts to modernize the USSR, through the eyes and characters real and imagined, Khrushchev's flight to the US being one of them. Khrushchev was apparently shocked when he met the Economic Club, they were not the Tall Hat wearing capitalists of Soviet depiction. As an aside, Shirley McClaine often in talk shows in the UK spoke of an affair with one of 'your Labour Party Ministers in the 1970's'. Later turned out to be Roy Jenkins!
"Khrushchev was apparently shocked when he met the Economic Club, they were not the Tall Hat wearing capitalists of Soviet depiction." well what were they? small hat wearing capitalists? the US created that monster and nourished it at the expense of the american taxpayer. containment, domino theory etc.. go out of the window at once only to reappear and while keeping the SU alive. such a fake back and forth.
Wow - never knew of this. Just imagine of Khrushchev had succeeded and done what Gorbachev did about 25 years later! The USA and USSR are similar in many ways and its sad that there were so many, near fatal, misunderstandings between the two.
Relations could have been better, but it was more than a misunderstanding, but real and deep ideological differences. It is like saying what is going between the US and Russia and the US and China is largely a misunderstanding.
Im sorry, but only a naive buffoon would write and believe such a dumb comment. Well done. Khrushchev never wanted to do what Gorbachev decided he would do right before his chance at leadership as well as with further encouragement from Reagan and Thatcher later on. If Khrushchev had actually for some reason wanted and managed to push through Gorbachev's exact reforms, the Soviet Union would have likely collapsed like it did under Gorbachev. Centralized authority being lost was one of the top reasons holding the Soviet Union together, avoiding widespread viewing into the failures of their systems, unrest, and independence movements. Khrushchev was never afraid to both threaten and actually use Tanks and the Red Army against internal unrest. Nor was he afraid to repeatedly threaten to use nukes against the USA and others.
@@arrow1414 It largely still is and very tragically so. The current misunderstandings between the Chinese and Americans about many policy aspects are what pushes for renewed Cold War-like tensions
One part of this tour that was skipped over in this video is that while at Camp David, Maryland, Eisenhower brought Khrushchev to his personal farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where Khrushchev admired Ike's black angus cattle and even got to meet the 4 Eisenhower grandchildren. Khrushchev told how to pronounce each of the kids' names in Russian, held them on his knee, and gave them each a little communist star pins that they could wear to school to show off. Ike's daughter-in-law, knowing that the pins would cause a lot of unwanted press, collected their pins while they were driving away and threw them out the window, never to be seen again.
I remember the visit to Garst*s farm in Iowa in *59. Security was lax. A stranger just walked in and claimed he was Garst*s son. He walked all over the place and was not challenged for some time. Finally he was stopped. He was just an eccentric. Fortunately he was not a killer. Times have changed.
Kruschev never gets enough credit for how he backed down over Cuba, and the last minute letter he wrote to JFK. Nikita and Gorbachev were two Soviet leaders who deserve at least a statue or two here in the USA. Both rose above the usual party thuggery and became hero’s. Thank God the US had JFK and Reagan, who chose to listen, not just confront.
I was just thinking along the same lines, although it's important to recall that USSR fell apart when Gorbachev took the threat of violence out of the system. ;-)
@@functhefucc5798 Eh, IIRC he didn’t want to but Cuba was one of his campaign promises, because he didn’t think they would place missiles there. About equal blame, perhaps more on the US though
Khrushchev exactly brought the USSR to a modern country both in industry and science and tech. He wanted to to compete against the west on equal footing and almost succeeded
this is one of those subjects that often only gets a line or two in the history books or documentaries, I'm really glad that you covered this and made it such a long and entertaining video.
It's amazing how "cute" this all was. Makes one wish there could be more meetings like these between enemies. But of course the sad this is that even if there was more reciprocity they may not result in much concrete ease of tensions of mutual trust between the warring powers, like the ultimate results of this meeting.
Great video as always. I'm currently reading a book called K Blows Top about this visit, and thus far, I recommend it, as it gives more detail and context. There was a lot of comedy to be gleaned, both from the trip itself and the incessant and occasionally ridiculous press coverage of it.
There had been a number of death threats the government had received, including a Midwestern doctor who, IN A LATTER TO THE GOVERNMENT, proposed a method of killing him that was supposedly so ingenious that the government found the doctor and jailed him for the duration of Khrushchev's trip. They figured that they could just hand over the letter for proof of why he needed to be locked up, and nothing more came of it. Khrushchev ran a country with nukes pointed at the US. He had a tendency in conversation with US diplomats to describe how capable his bombers and missiles were in grisly detail. Of course some people might have wanted to kill him, and imagine the nightmare of trying to keep someone safe from every guest at Disneyland. It's not unreasonable.
It must’ve been wonderful, as a journalist, to be assigned to follow him about…a golden quote a moment, bursts of either indignation or delight, tub-thumping monologues and rants….I only wish that you could’ve found / included footage of the corn mogul, Mr Garst, hurling cobs and chaff at the pushy press..
Regarding soviet sausage making: My dad always said there were jokes about the sausages that were sold being made out of newspaper to save on meat and if one actually bought a sausage, they ware asked what was in the news.
Do you have an online list of the chronological order of your videos? I would like to watch the videos as a history text, but now I jump from one decade to another.
Khrushchev may have wanted a warming of US-Soviet relations, but the rest of the Soviet government didn't. They had been opposed to the peaceful coexistence stance and hated his trip. They were so mad that they were planning to oust him as leader. Khrushchev knew this, and the later U-2 shootdown provided him with a good excuse to ratchet up the hostile rhetoric and save his position, at least for a few more years. So for all the "Cold War may have thawed if it wasn't for the U-2 flights" takes, it seems that larger forces were conspiring against better relations at this time regardless of what happened with American spy flights.
To say nothing of the MIC and hard-liners in the US. If the Soviet government had been more accommodating, you still had the US provocations like the U2 flights.
You forget that Soviet paranoia and hostility towards the capitalist world was routine stuff compared to the ideological hate and deep seated fear of communism, and whatever even remotely approached it, gripping the dominant classes on the West since 1917.
@@stefanodadamo6809 No one in the US was planning to overthrow the president if they were "too soft communism." Quit making excuses. Their hostility was "routine" but the West's paranoia was "deep seated?" Pffft!
This is not true at all; many in the Soviet government simply thought that peaceful coexistence between socialism and imperialist capitalism was a pipe dream. They understood that capitalism is, by inherent nature, hegemonic and expansionistic; it could not and would not allow any competing socioeconomic order, particularly in the global south. Others though, especially in the Foreign Ministry and diplomatic corps, attempted to restore relations well into the most acrimonious part of the Cold War, but to no avail. However, had FDR lived a few more years, or had Wallace not been bounced from the Democratic Party ticket in 1944, things may have gone very differently. It was the position of FDR and Wallace to liquidate the European empires after the war; it was understood that the price to Britain in particular for the decisive US assistance was to be the dismantling of the British Empire (not just on paper, but in substance too). Likewise, the intention was to continue cooperating with the Soviet Union after the war, particularly in the development of the liberated former colonies. Unfortunately, that did not happen and we damn near destroyed human civilization on several instances instead.
@@creatoruser736 I seem to remember a certain US President who challenged the bipartisan Cold War consensus getting his brains blown out all over downtown Dallas, Texas.
In Bulgarian Nikita's last name is spelled "Hrushchov". In English is Khrushchev. Interestingly enough, "krusha" means "pear" in Bulgarian. Is it what Nikita's last name means?
The Ancient Greek letter from which the χ is Russian derivers is called "CHI" - "KI". That's why the Latin transliteration is with K. Even though in Russian (and in modern Greek too) has become a sound more similar to the English H.
I've always wonder what could have been - had the Americans been more open and that Eisenhower hadn't authorised the illegal surveillance flights over the Soviet Union which resulted in the U-2 shootdown and the subsequent fallout from that event. Eisenhower had to be convinced that the risk of the overflights was safe, as he was skeptical all along - being a military person he was aware of the consequences.
@@EnigmaEnginseer Funnily enough, at least for the Soviets, it actually was. Both were sending spies into each other's countries, so no huge deal there, but flying over another countries airspace is a very provocative measure, potentially war causing. For the Soviets, it was also very embarrassing that they weren't able to shoot down the spy planes, which also caused it to be a major point of contention for them.
Berlin Wall 1961 did not help. !962 Cuba crises led to comrade Khrushchev being booted out of power by Brezhnev the Beast. Oh my Soviet goodness, both these sweeties came from Ukraine. A real shame they are not around in 2020 !!
There's a video I really enjoyed on the Soviet "doctor sausage" on My Name Is Andong's UA-cam channel. Sometimes a sausage in a bun with the right toppings is just perfect, despite the actual quality of the meat!
I remember finding a book in my grandma's bookshelf some years back, I think this one was Eisenhower's biography (there were several: about de Gaulle, Patton, etc). As seen by USSR of course. This visit was also mentioned. Apparently shipyard workers of New York looked upon Khrushchev with apparent admiration, seeing how this man of peasant origins was leading the world's most powerful country. Or something like that. While they were being watched by the FBI, which was of course the secret police of USA. And then I couldn't be bothered to go on. edit: I'm just listening to a show on an Estonian radio and one of the recent episodes was about this visit. Apparently in USA streets were lined up with people greeting Eisenhower and Khrushchev. Some time later Khrushchev visited China to celebrate an anniversary of CCP and there wasn't anyone. There's a lot more and quite in-depth. Apparently he also visited Roosevelt's widow and his house museum to pay respects. I hope I find the effort to transcribe the whole episode later and put this up here. There's an hour of it.
Seems like the authors of this book really enjoyed the creative writing exercise. It's so much easier to write about these things if you don't have to look up any facts.
OK, Luna had a very hard landing on the moon, the first object of Earth origin to make an impact crater. Still, it deserves a monument on the moon to benefit future historians.
Calling on history to decide was a bit rash in this case... Plus Eastern bloc sausage is good. I come from the UK, where sausages are very different, but a good old fashioned Polish kielbasa is my choice every time.
>Which really makes me wonder about Soviet sausage. Yuck. Actually, Soviet foodstuffs were very high quality at that time. It is impossible to find such high quality food products today.
Seems to me we didn’t treat him with better courtesy. The press was very hostil and adversarial towards him. If we had just allowed him to go to Disneyland the Cold War may have been cut short.
To "We will bury you." (or the Rolling Stones' version of what Khrushev says he actually said: "If you send dead flowers to my wedding, I won't forget to put roses on your grave.") The stoic/capitalist response would be: Someday we will help you get as rich and as frivolous as us. We should have thrown open the gates of the Magic Kingdom to Comrade Nikita, given him a thousand pairs of Levis, and negotiated the tour of as much Rock-n-Roll as the Politburo could tolerate (Or RnB and Jazz. How could the Soviets have refused African-American music? I don' t know how big James Brown was at that point - but the Godfather of Soul would've probably ended Communism by 1971, not 1991.)
"Lived" in their era... yeah, okay... How old are you? Would you elaborate on what you mean? Either way I am not going to believe you, if you "lived" in Stalins era I expect you to be approaching your 90s, excuse me if I find it unlikely that a near 90 year old man is surfing UA-cam commenting.
I was expecting to see the Corn Lord live up to his moniker and the video did not disappoint! 🌽❤️🌽❤️🌽❤️🌽 Oh, and those gangster bell buttons should be put in jail! 🛎 🛎️🛎️
Nikita looks at corn like how Gollum looks at The One. Odd about the wieners, as my understanding was that Soviet “doctors sausage” was supposed to have been their copy of bologna, only somewhat more nutritious (rather than being full of fat, fillers, and floor sweepings)
Make no mistake that we were dealing from the side of power. While the USSR knew how far behind they were militarily, the US did not. We offered an olive branch, not in asking, but in telling them to be careful. The USSR worked constantly to bring down the US. This meeting was meant to drive home the idea that we were not weak. Mr Nixon, even at that time, looked Presidential and acted as a valuable asset to our country, decifering communist interests and motives.
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Maybe the director and scriptwriters of "Death of Stalin" should make a "Khrushchev in America" movie, a spin-off featuring Steve Buscemi as Khruschev again and his shenanigans in the states XD
That would be amazing! What a great idea. Someone should contact them, perhaps on twitter.
Omg that would be a great movie!
Someone please start a gofundme for this!!!
The thumbnail should read : " The world is a stage "!
Sure, the “great” film makers of that hot garbage. Why don’t you suggest makers of enemy at the gates next
Poor Khrushchev, the man wanted to go to Disneyland so bad. That picture with Mickey would’ve been legendary
Definitely, even Hirohito got a picture with Mickey at DisneyLand
@@GeloDianela epic
The Cuban missile crisis: the result of Nikita not getting to meet Mickey
Khrushchev did not understand what was happening. Nixon showed vividly in 1959, how misguided Khrushchev really was. Khrushchev was kicked out as Soviet Leader because he had very poor economic policies.
He would have said they're Minsky Mouse was much smarter and stronger though
It's been said, that although many Americans were sceptical or even hostile towards this visit of the First Communist, the curiosity and novelty aspect won - people did line up to the streets when Khrushchev entourage drove by, journalists flocked to meet him etc. And Krhushchev also turned out to be far funnier than everyone expected. For example this meeting at the National Press Club elevated his popularity - not in the sense, that the journalists or the public would turn to communism, but in the sense that everyone noticed Khrushchev intended or unintended wits, his ability to strike back verbally and his general normality - that this character is no monster but a human being with whom one can talk. At least in that sense the trip was a success. And it made a huge impact on the Soviet Union (the self serving supermarkets were mentioned in the video) but also Khrushchev personally - the chairman departed just shortly after returning from the United States to the trip to China, where he was greeted very frostily - something, that made him compare his visit to the USA. Seeing how the purported ally China deals with him and comparing it how he was greeted by the purported enemy the United States, had certainly a big impact on the outcome of the already ongoing Sino-Soviet split.
But a great video, as always! Although I new most of it, I hadn't seen many of the video clips shown here. Thank You!
At that time, CPC and KTM were in
civil war. The US was the boss of KTM. CPC was very angry because the US made friends with the Soviet Union.
@@可爱包-c4v The civil war was over by the 1950s. The reason our countries split was because of resource and border disputes in both Mongolia and Siberia.
Those were some great fun facts! It's always nice when viewers can add a little something extra in the comments related to the video. Thanks! 👍🙂
I think Khrushchev also said that he hoped that US and Soviet Union relations would return to FDR levels after the victory of JFK in the 1960 election.
This lead to the Vienna Summit of 1961 between the two.
He wasn't stupid, he knew for his nation to thrive it needed more open relationships internationally.
@@imadequate3376 And corn.
It also led (almost) to total nuclear war.
My uncle was a tool and die specialist for John Deere in Des Moines, Iowa and in the 1970s he was part of a team that helped host a Soviet delegation that was to learn about US farming methods. A large shipment of Tractors and Combines were shipped to the USSR. While the delegation was in the US, a lot of the Soviet reps brought crates of Soviet goods (vodka, cigarettes, etc) that they could trade for US goods. Many traded for American liquor, blue jeans, music records, etc that they could take back with them to the USSR and in turn trade with. My uncle to this very day still prefers Russian vodka over any other spirit. 😂
russian vodka is the best there is. ive got a bottle of Beluga in my fridge
@@TheWaynester101 sounds like you need to try Chopin Polish vodka then 😉
@@The_Honcho pooland won’t exist soon
It was my family's farm he visited to learn about farming.
I still prefer Russian Standard Vodka (the only widely available Russian Vodka I can get) to any other vodka. After all, who else would know good vodka but the Russians?
Fun Fact: Khrushchev while touring the US met John Wayne and the two had an alcohol drinking contest. Wayne with Tequila. Khrushchev with Vodka. It ended in a draw. My compliments to all those who made this video a reality.
Haha being a male Can be nice sometimes
Is that even real
@@channelname1700---Yes it is. Krushchev also met Marilyn Monroe too. Briefly.
Wayne was a bad alcoholic
Kruschev in America is one of my favorite Cold War episodes. I think it's funny how Hollywood was negative, maybe because of their reputation as being a communist hotbed.
Hollywood is a business, it was "money before politics" back then.
At that time yes, they were probably trying to distance themselves from communism or anything that could be misconstrued as such.
This was only a few years after McCarthy and the Blacklist, so a lot of the Communists were either driven out of Hollywood or still working under fake names.
@@deadpilled2942 it still is
@@omaralkatmeh6913 Depends.
I recall that the cancelled visit to Disneyland was discussed in a Defunctland (defunct theme park rides yt channel) video on the submarine voyage ride there. Walt Diseney was dissapointed that he did not have a chance to show off his ride to the Soviet leader.
It seems that Nikita Sergeevich liked to talk about sausages. He also said to the Americans: "We make [intercontinental ballistic] missiles like sausages"
In combination with the shortage of sausages in the USSR, this gave rise to a joke:
- When Khrushchev said that the Soviet Union was making intercontinental missiles like sausages, there were only 4 such missiles in the country.
- And how many sausages?
I think the Soviet jokes about shortages are great, like yeah you'd have been sent to Siberia for telling them but they're so witty
Sausage and corn have similar shapes, Im seeing a pattern here
@@thorthewolf8801 yup, rockets , sausage and corn.
Right now I'm reading
Serhii Plokhy's The Man with the Poison Gun: A Cold War Spy Story, the events take place in 1957 and there are SAUSAGES AGAIN.
"Dräger/Lehmann was carrying more than a thousand West German marks, and there were two cans of Frankfurt sausages in his luggage. He seemed ready for any eventuality, including a sudden East German takeover of West Germany and the disappearance of food supplies from West German stores.
The documents, money, and sausages had been given to Stashinsky at Karlshorst. They told him to use his Western passport for the flight to West Germany, and the East German one thereafter. If he was caught, he should declare himself an East German citizen, which would presumably improve his chances of returning to the Eastern bloc. The most incriminating piece of evidence in his luggage were the sausages. He had two tins of them, but only one actually contained sausages. The other had been opened and redesigned by KGB technicians at Karlshorst to conceal his weapon: the spray pistol. The weapon was wrapped in cotton wool and placed in a metal cylinder. The cylinder was then placed in the tin, which was filled with water. Both the weapon and the cylinder were made of aluminum, and the weight of the fake tin was the same as that of the real one, with a special mark on the fake tin to distinguish it. Other than that, they looked identical."
@@CrackaPackify they said them AFTER being sent to Siberia. By that point... 😉
I think that needs to be a poster with what you said " Find someone who looks at you how Nikita Khrushchev looks at corn. " .. with that picture.
I don't know about posters, but there's definitely a meme XD
Would be interesting to see an alt-history scenario explored where that U2 hadn't been shot down, and the de-escalation of the Cold War had progressed.
Indeed - will have to write to Alternate History hub or Harry Turtledove. 😉
It really would
I've always thought of the symbolic ending of the cold war occurring a few years after the 'official' end that was marked by the collapse of the Soviet Union. The symbolic end to me was when Gorbachev appeared in a pizza hut commercial. Seriously - the former head of the Soviet communist party and head of the soviet state making some extra money by working with an American capitalist pizza franchise. I was a kid in the 1980s and remembered when the Soviet Union as the ultimate 'evil' but still badass communist empire that was nearly as powerful as we were and had a shitload of nuclear weapons pointed at us. And then their leader ends up in a freaking Pizza Hut commercial...like WTF??? That is like Satan himself taking a break from tormenting souls in hell and teaching a bunch of kids about Jesus, the bible, and the golden rule at a catholic Sunday school.
Gorbachev filmed the Pizza Hut commercial in 1997, 6 years after the fall of the Soviet Union; and it has never been aired in Russia.
Read further if you'd like: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorbachev_Pizza_Hut_commercial
The advertisement about Gorbachev made me sick🤮🤮🤮He just wanted to make money and humiliate the Soviet Union
This is a fantastic comment, thank you!
@@Stephen._.Chapman I would have sworn that commercial aired earlier, at least while I was in high school (class of '96), probably while I was in 9th or 10th grade.
Just a slight correction, Luna 2, as planned, impacted the Moon not landed, that would have to wait until Luna 9 in 1966.
The TU-114 that carried Khrushchev, was still under testing, it was however the most advanced Soviet airliner then with the range. Still, there were technicians on board monitoring it, a line of ships along the route if things went bad.
I can recommend 'Red Plenty' by Francis Spufford, an innovative account of attempts to modernize the USSR, through the eyes and characters real and imagined, Khrushchev's flight to the US being one of them.
Khrushchev was apparently shocked when he met the Economic Club, they were not the Tall Hat wearing capitalists of Soviet depiction.
As an aside, Shirley McClaine often in talk shows in the UK spoke of an affair with one of 'your Labour Party Ministers in the 1970's'. Later turned out to be Roy Jenkins!
"Khrushchev was apparently shocked when he met the Economic Club, they were not the Tall Hat wearing capitalists of Soviet depiction."
well what were they? small hat wearing capitalists? the US created that monster and nourished it at the expense of the american taxpayer. containment, domino theory etc.. go out of the window at once only to reappear and while keeping the SU alive. such a fake back and forth.
@@andriypohors2538 As in cartoon like depictions, caricatures. Rather like anti Semitic ones.
Wow - never knew of this. Just imagine of Khrushchev had succeeded and done what Gorbachev did about 25 years later!
The USA and USSR are similar in many ways and its sad that there were so many, near fatal, misunderstandings between the two.
Relations could have been better, but it was more than a misunderstanding, but real and deep ideological differences. It is like saying what is going between the US and Russia and the US and China is largely a misunderstanding.
Im sorry, but only a naive buffoon would write and believe such a dumb comment. Well done. Khrushchev never wanted to do what Gorbachev decided he would do right before his chance at leadership as well as with further encouragement from Reagan and Thatcher later on. If Khrushchev had actually for some reason wanted and managed to push through Gorbachev's exact reforms, the Soviet Union would have likely collapsed like it did under Gorbachev. Centralized authority being lost was one of the top reasons holding the Soviet Union together, avoiding widespread viewing into the failures of their systems, unrest, and independence movements. Khrushchev was never afraid to both threaten and actually use Tanks and the Red Army against internal unrest. Nor was he afraid to repeatedly threaten to use nukes against the USA and others.
@@arrow1414 It largely still is and very tragically so. The current misunderstandings between the Chinese and Americans about many policy aspects are what pushes for renewed Cold War-like tensions
My late brother has memories of the visit. According to Steven he remembers Khrushchev coming thru our town on a special train waving thru the window
One part of this tour that was skipped over in this video is that while at Camp David, Maryland, Eisenhower brought Khrushchev to his personal farm in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where Khrushchev admired Ike's black angus cattle and even got to meet the 4 Eisenhower grandchildren. Khrushchev told how to pronounce each of the kids' names in Russian, held them on his knee, and gave them each a little communist star pins that they could wear to school to show off. Ike's daughter-in-law, knowing that the pins would cause a lot of unwanted press, collected their pins while they were driving away and threw them out the window, never to be seen again.
So they might be communist stars somewhere
I remember the visit to Garst*s farm in Iowa in *59. Security was lax. A stranger just walked in and claimed he was Garst*s son. He walked all over the place and was not challenged for some time. Finally he was stopped. He was just an eccentric. Fortunately he was not a killer. Times have changed.
Kruschev never gets enough credit for how he backed down over Cuba, and the last minute letter he wrote to JFK. Nikita and Gorbachev were two Soviet leaders who deserve at least a statue or two here in the USA. Both rose above the usual party thuggery and became hero’s. Thank God the US had JFK and Reagan, who chose to listen, not just confront.
I was just thinking along the same lines, although it's important to recall that USSR fell apart when Gorbachev took the threat of violence out of the system. ;-)
"Reagan chose to listen and not just confront"- this is a bit hard to swallow
LMAO REAGAN CHOSE TO LISTEN????
The same mf whose military policy was to outspend the USSR?
JFK was the one to escalate the Cuba crisis lol. That is what american education does to you.
@@functhefucc5798 Eh, IIRC he didn’t want to but Cuba was one of his campaign promises, because he didn’t think they would place missiles there. About equal blame, perhaps more on the US though
Khrushchev exactly brought the USSR to a modern country both in industry and science and tech. He wanted to to compete against the west on equal footing and almost succeeded
this is one of those subjects that often only gets a line or two in the history books or documentaries, I'm really glad that you covered this and made it such a long and entertaining video.
Very enjoyable David. Thank you
Glad you enjoyed it
It's amazing how "cute" this all was. Makes one wish there could be more meetings like these between enemies. But of course the sad this is that even if there was more reciprocity they may not result in much concrete ease of tensions of mutual trust between the warring powers, like the ultimate results of this meeting.
Great video as always. I'm currently reading a book called K Blows Top about this visit, and thus far, I recommend it, as it gives more detail and context. There was a lot of comedy to be gleaned, both from the trip itself and the incessant and occasionally ridiculous press coverage of it.
To not guarantee the safety of someone at an amusement park ? This is the irony of the Cold War.
There had been a number of death threats the government had received, including a Midwestern doctor who, IN A LATTER TO THE GOVERNMENT, proposed a method of killing him that was supposedly so ingenious that the government found the doctor and jailed him for the duration of Khrushchev's trip. They figured that they could just hand over the letter for proof of why he needed to be locked up, and nothing more came of it.
Khrushchev ran a country with nukes pointed at the US. He had a tendency in conversation with US diplomats to describe how capable his bombers and missiles were in grisly detail. Of course some people might have wanted to kill him, and imagine the nightmare of trying to keep someone safe from every guest at Disneyland. It's not unreasonable.
America is famous for lone gunmen who go on the rampage. May not have been so different then.
This is the equivalent of the 1914 Christmas Truce. Nice and somewhat wholesome in theory but didnt resolve the root issue.
All things considered, Khrushchev could've been a hell of a lot worse. He did what he could with what he had to work with.
Fun fact that trip where "damage control" was done on his trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco, he stopped in San Luis Obispo where I live and work!
Many thanks from the little Asian country, Sri Lanka.
17:15
' we will bury you ⚰ '
An old Russian complement, the cost of funerals is exorbitant.
It must’ve been wonderful, as a journalist, to be assigned to follow him about…a golden quote a moment, bursts of either indignation or delight, tub-thumping monologues and rants….I only wish that you could’ve found / included footage of the corn mogul, Mr Garst, hurling cobs and chaff at the pushy press..
Imagine the world if Krushchev visited Disneyland, we would have two cities on the Moon, fusion power plants, hot ice cream, flying cars
At least Khrushchev tried to ease the tension with that visit, not as the nowadays leader at the Kremlin with his cold war nostalgia.
It's the West who refuses to negotiate on reasonable terms and keep talking about "fighting as long as it takes". Until the last Ukrainian.
That time Iowa fell in love with a soviet leader.
I'm sorry Khrushchev never went to Disneyland. I thought he had. It must've really hurt.
Regarding soviet sausage making:
My dad always said there were jokes about the sausages that were sold being made out of newspaper to save on meat and if one actually bought a sausage, they ware asked what was in the news.
I've never heard such an anecdote
What a perfectly worked out episode!
Thanks a lot.
Do you have an online list of the chronological order of your videos? I would like to watch the videos as a history text, but now I jump from one decade to another.
Khrushchev may have wanted a warming of US-Soviet relations, but the rest of the Soviet government didn't. They had been opposed to the peaceful coexistence stance and hated his trip. They were so mad that they were planning to oust him as leader. Khrushchev knew this, and the later U-2 shootdown provided him with a good excuse to ratchet up the hostile rhetoric and save his position, at least for a few more years. So for all the "Cold War may have thawed if it wasn't for the U-2 flights" takes, it seems that larger forces were conspiring against better relations at this time regardless of what happened with American spy flights.
To say nothing of the MIC and hard-liners in the US. If the Soviet government had been more accommodating, you still had the US provocations like the U2 flights.
You forget that Soviet paranoia and hostility towards the capitalist world was routine stuff compared to the ideological hate and deep seated fear of communism, and whatever even remotely approached it, gripping the dominant classes on the West since 1917.
@@stefanodadamo6809 No one in the US was planning to overthrow the president if they were "too soft communism." Quit making excuses. Their hostility was "routine" but the West's paranoia was "deep seated?" Pffft!
This is not true at all; many in the Soviet government simply thought that peaceful coexistence between socialism and imperialist capitalism was a pipe dream. They understood that capitalism is, by inherent nature, hegemonic and expansionistic; it could not and would not allow any competing socioeconomic order, particularly in the global south. Others though, especially in the Foreign Ministry and diplomatic corps, attempted to restore relations well into the most acrimonious part of the Cold War, but to no avail.
However, had FDR lived a few more years, or had Wallace not been bounced from the Democratic Party ticket in 1944, things may have gone very differently. It was the position of FDR and Wallace to liquidate the European empires after the war; it was understood that the price to Britain in particular for the decisive US assistance was to be the dismantling of the British Empire (not just on paper, but in substance too). Likewise, the intention was to continue cooperating with the Soviet Union after the war, particularly in the development of the liberated former colonies. Unfortunately, that did not happen and we damn near destroyed human civilization on several instances instead.
@@creatoruser736 I seem to remember a certain US President who challenged the bipartisan Cold War consensus getting his brains blown out all over downtown Dallas, Texas.
In Bulgarian Nikita's last name is spelled "Hrushchov". In English is Khrushchev. Interestingly enough, "krusha" means "pear" in Bulgarian. Is it what Nikita's last name means?
So…Pearson?
The Ancient Greek letter from which the χ is Russian derivers is called "CHI" - "KI". That's why the Latin transliteration is with K. Even though in Russian (and in modern Greek too) has become a sound more similar to the English H.
larva of the Melolontha
Same in Romanian. Hrușciov is our transliteration and the pronunciation by the looks of it is similar.
I've always wonder what could have been - had the Americans been more open and that Eisenhower hadn't authorised the illegal surveillance flights over the Soviet Union which resulted in the U-2 shootdown and the subsequent fallout from that event. Eisenhower had to be convinced that the risk of the overflights was safe, as he was skeptical all along - being a military person he was aware of the consequences.
The Soviet were spying on the US more than the US spied on the Soviets…
@@kayzeaza at least they werent actively and openly violating foreign airspace
@@kubajackiewicz2 Of course, because that’s the big issue, totally
@@EnigmaEnginseer Funnily enough, at least for the Soviets, it actually was. Both were sending spies into each other's countries, so no huge deal there, but flying over another countries airspace is a very provocative measure, potentially war causing. For the Soviets, it was also very embarrassing that they weren't able to shoot down the spy planes, which also caused it to be a major point of contention for them.
Berlin Wall 1961 did not help. !962 Cuba crises led to comrade Khrushchev being booted out of power by Brezhnev the Beast. Oh my Soviet goodness, both these sweeties came from Ukraine. A real shame they are not around in 2020 !!
After visiting an American farm, Kruschev went back home and pushed corn as the new soviet miracle crop.
There's a video I really enjoyed on the Soviet "doctor sausage" on My Name Is Andong's UA-cam channel. Sometimes a sausage in a bun with the right toppings is just perfect, despite the actual quality of the meat!
I remember finding a book in my grandma's bookshelf some years back, I think this one was Eisenhower's biography (there were several: about de Gaulle, Patton, etc). As seen by USSR of course. This visit was also mentioned. Apparently shipyard workers of New York looked upon Khrushchev with apparent admiration, seeing how this man of peasant origins was leading the world's most powerful country. Or something like that. While they were being watched by the FBI, which was of course the secret police of USA.
And then I couldn't be bothered to go on.
edit: I'm just listening to a show on an Estonian radio and one of the recent episodes was about this visit. Apparently in USA streets were lined up with people greeting Eisenhower and Khrushchev. Some time later Khrushchev visited China to celebrate an anniversary of CCP and there wasn't anyone.
There's a lot more and quite in-depth. Apparently he also visited Roosevelt's widow and his house museum to pay respects. I hope I find the effort to transcribe the whole episode later and put this up here. There's an hour of it.
Seems like the authors of this book really enjoyed the creative writing exercise. It's so much easier to write about these things if you don't have to look up any facts.
Excellent as always.
Fantastic episode! Keep it up 👍
It's interesting the way Khrushchev handled an interview or rather the failure to do so.
Luna 2 didn't land, it impacted. Still a major technical achievement, but landing didn't come till Luna 9 in 1966.
OK, Luna had a very hard landing on the moon, the first object of Earth origin to make an impact crater. Still, it deserves a monument on the moon to benefit future historians.
Calling on history to decide was a bit rash in this case...
Plus Eastern bloc sausage is good. I come from the UK, where sausages are very different, but a good old fashioned Polish kielbasa is my choice every time.
Hrushchev in America movie when?
10:55
Pigs 🐖 too fat and turkeys too small.
The Americans obviously read 'animal farm ' by George Orwell
And the famous kitchen debate with Nixon.
I am impressed how Khrushchev dismantled the gulags and wound back Stalinist policies, called destalinization.
I "wonder" how Khrushchev will react 3 years later in order to ease tension between the two superpowers.
Currently imaginating khrushchev visiting America as George from Seinfeld for some reason
He was master of his domain!
It's a pity Nikita wasn't able to
End the cold war and cut military
Spending. It's pity for the Russian
People who could have had a
Comfortable life.
Kruschev: i ll make coexistence possible
Cuban revolution: I dont think so fellow comrade
Was Neville Chamberlain there? 7:07
It certainly looked like him! but Neville died in 1940
19:30 HAHAHA!!! Nice one :))
I saw Segei Kruschev speak at Brown University,
15:31
The Americans won't let their enemies visit Disneyland .
20:15 dear Khrushchev happy Valentine
I remember security at Karst*s Iowa farm was loose. A stranger passed himself of as Garst*s son, and wandered all over the place before caught.
Does anyone know the name of the song that is playing in the background in all of these videos?
"Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing"
- George Orwell
"We're gonna bury you!"
Ahem.
>Which really makes me wonder about Soviet sausage. Yuck.
Actually, Soviet foodstuffs were very high quality at that time. It is impossible to find such high quality food products today.
Yeah, no fake sugars or fillers - just actual food.
So hard to find even the Soviet citizens couldn’t find them
@@EnigmaEnginseer this is typical for the 80s when the independence of production from the plan was widely introduced
Hruschev is so underrated.
Seems to me we didn’t treat him with better courtesy. The press was very hostil and adversarial towards him. If we had just allowed him to go to Disneyland the Cold War may have been cut short.
Not sure anyone else picked up on it (apologies if they did), but I enjoyed the Die Hard reference…
You may be the first to comment on the reference...thank you! :)
To "We will bury you." (or the Rolling Stones' version of what Khrushev says he actually said: "If you send dead flowers to my wedding, I won't forget to put roses on your grave.") The stoic/capitalist response would be: Someday we will help you get as rich and as frivolous as us.
We should have thrown open the gates of the Magic Kingdom to Comrade Nikita, given him a thousand pairs of Levis, and negotiated the tour of as much Rock-n-Roll as the Politburo could tolerate (Or RnB and Jazz. How could the Soviets have refused African-American music? I don' t know how big James Brown was at that point - but the Godfather of Soul would've probably ended Communism by 1971, not 1991.)
i hope you will start making videos for the new cold war that's coming
Khrushchev answering questions by the journalists ? This looked like mission impossible.
Profound.
Wow
Don rickles started his stage career in 1959, just imagine if he had been there with all those celebrities, and the leader of the USSR.
The man is amazing. I do not even agree with his ideals but he did more for russia than anyone had in who knows amount of time.
I wonder how he would get along with Gorbichev?
Press the button Georgy!
Nixon with that exhibition really tried to create a good impression, not like in the aftermath of the debate with Kennedy or with Watergate.
What could have been....
Khrushchev was a bit of a Buffon loved grabbing his shoe and banging it on the podium haha
Khrushchev was big on corn. He would irritate the agricultural bureau people
in the Soviet Union to no end over his fixation with corn.
20:10 I just choked!
8:02
Camp David
' the Americans want to meet us in a Gulag!, we will die there!
I lived in Stalin and kchruschov era. Interesting how history gets twisted
Examples?
It would be a lot more interesting if you elaborated!
Whaaa???? Example
"Lived" in their era... yeah, okay... How old are you? Would you elaborate on what you mean?
Either way I am not going to believe you, if you "lived" in Stalins era I expect you to be approaching your 90s, excuse me if I find it unlikely that a near 90 year old man is surfing UA-cam commenting.
@@bebos1262 Weeell, Stalin died in 1953, so, strictly speaking, there is no need to be older than 80. But yes, unlikely.
I was expecting to see the Corn Lord live up to his moniker and the video did not disappoint! 🌽❤️🌽❤️🌽❤️🌽
Oh, and those gangster bell buttons should be put in jail! 🛎 🛎️🛎️
16:50 oh really now i wonder why
Nikita looks at corn like how Gollum looks at The One. Odd about the wieners, as my understanding was that Soviet “doctors sausage” was supposed to have been their copy of bologna, only somewhat more nutritious (rather than being full of fat, fillers, and floor sweepings)
I really wish Khruschev could have visited Disneyland.
This is somewhat the Khrushchev' failed attempt of what Gorbaciov will succeed.
They all failed pitifully
At 12:26, I couldnt help but laugh.
US changed Latin America form of gov all the time during the cold war.
Khrushchev meets american food. That was the moment in which he didn't have anything to say in favor on the soviet "capabilities".
Remember Kichen debate
If reality TV existed back then producers would have made a reality TV show about Khrushchev In America
An alternative title would look like: "The butcher of Hungary" attempt an ease of the Cold War.
Make an episode for the US intervention in Grenada
Coming to America starring Eddie… I mean Nikita Krushchev
Make no mistake that we were dealing from the side of power.
While the USSR knew how far behind they were militarily, the US did not.
We offered an olive branch, not in asking, but in telling them to be careful.
The USSR worked constantly to bring down the US. This meeting was meant to drive home the idea that we were not weak.
Mr Nixon, even at that time, looked Presidential and acted as a valuable asset to our country, decifering communist interests and motives.
We all know why Nikita came here. He wanted all our corn!