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Khrushchev Visits the United States

Published: 1959
Play Audio Archive Story - UPI
ORIGINAL CAPTION: Frank Sinatra greets then Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev on the set of "Can Can" September 19, 1959 during Khrushchev's visiti to the U.S. Also in photo are actor Louis Jourdan (L) and actress Shirley Maclaine. (UPI PHOTO/FILES)

Announcer: Washington, September 15th

Premier Nikita Khrushchev: "(Russian.)"

Interpreter: "Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, permit me on first setting foot on American soil to thank Mr. Eisenhower for the invitation to visit your country and everyone present for the warm welcome accorded to us representatives of the Soviet Union. Russians say every good job should be started in the morning. Our flight began in Moscow this morning, and we now have the pleasure of first meeting you on American soil on the morning of the same day. As you see, our countries are not so distant from each other."

Announcer: At the United Nations three days later, Khrushchev proposed.."

Interpreter: "The essence of our proposals is that over a period of four years, all States could effect complete disarmament and should no longer have any means of waging war."

Announcer: Khrushchev's welcomes in his tour of the country ranged from hot to cold. Once in Los Angeles, he threatened to go home.

Premier Nikita Khrushchev: "(Russian.)"

Interpreter: "The thought sometimes -- the unpleasant thought sometimes creeps up on me here as to whether perhaps Khrushchev was not invited here to enable you to sort of rub him in your sauce and to show the might and the strength of the United States so as to make him sort of...so as to make him shaky at the knees. If that is so, then if I came -- if it took me about 12 hours to get here, I guess it'll just -- it'll take no more than about 10 and a half hours to fly back."

(Bell ringing.)

Announcer: But receptions in other cities were friendlier, and by the time he returned to Washington, Khrushchev was in a better mood. Before leaving, he was given the same opportunity he gave Nixon: to broadcast to the American people.

Premier Nikita Khrushchev: "(Russian.)"

Interpreter: "Esteemed citizens of the United States, in a few hours our plane will be leaving American soil, and I want to express my thanks once again to the American people, to President Eisenhower and to the Government of the United States for their kind hospitality and the good feelings shown to us. These good feelings and considerations accorded to me as the head of the Soviet Government, I attribute to the people of my country."

Premier Nikita Khrushchev: "Goodbye, good luck, friends."

Announcer: At his first news conference after Khrushchev departed, President Eisenhower was asked:

Newsman: "Sir, what did you think of Mr. Khrushchev?"

President Dwight D. Eisenhower: "Well, he is a...he's a dynamic and arresting personality. He's a man that used every possible debating method available to him. He's capable of great flights of -- or, you might say, of mannerism and of almost disposition from one of an almost negative, difficult attitude to the most easy, affable, genial type of discussion. He's a man I think that the American people sensed as they went around that they were seeing someone -- a man who is an extraordinary personality; there's no question about it."

Announcer: UPI reporter Jack Fox, who accompanied the Russian Premier on his two-week tour of the United States, summarizes.

Jack Fox: "Khrushchev fascinated Americans. I think one of the other reporters who accompanied the Russian Premier on the trip put his finger on the main source of that fascination. It was that there was always an atmosphere of danger and violence about the man. He left the impression of a very shrewd and a very tough antagonist; but he also left an impression of reasonableness and a feeling that it may be far better that Nikita Khrushchev holds power in the Kremlin instead of some others who might be there."

Announcer: It is a fact of life that the United States is trying to do business with Communist Russia. It's a matter of the world's survival. That was the force dictating all of 1959's political voyages, salesmen on the road talking and trying to find a way toward peace: Mikoyan, Koslov, Nixon, Khrushchev and finally President Eisenhower. At year's end, the President made a 22,000-mile journey to Europe, Asia and Africa. Everywhere, he repeated and reiterated the word "peace".

In a television speech to the nation on the eve of departure, he said:

President Dwight D. Eisenhower: "We have heard much of the phrase 'peace and friendship'. This phrase, in expressing the aspirations of America, is not complete. We should say instead 'peace and friendship in freedom'. This, I think, is America's real message to the world."

Announcer: He repeated that message in the rain in Rome.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower: "We want to live in peace and friendship in freedom."

Announcer: and in the sunshine in Karachi.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower: "We want to work together for peace."

Announcer: As 1959 drew to a close, it seemed there was still some hope for man: he was learning. The Eisenhower Tour is supposed to lead finally to a visit to Moscow, and then to a Summit Conference in a few months.

Yes, progress was made in 1959, not only in the building of rockets, but also in how man can get along with man.

Announcer: This has been the news cavalcade of 1959, produced by United Press International.

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