Khrushchev: The Man and His Era by William Taubman

Author:William Taubman [Taubman, William]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Presidents & Heads of State, History, Russia & the Former Soviet Union
ISBN: 9780393081725
Google: o9W4BkNN0WAC
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2004-04-16T22:00:00+00:00

THE WEATHER in Washington was hot; the sky above Andrews Air Force Base was cloudless. Flags of both countries fluttered in a slight breeze while the fifty-six-piece military band’s shiny instruments sparkled in the bright sun. Despite his best efforts, Khrushchev had arrived an hour late. The president of the United States, together with his secretary of state, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the permanent representative to the United Nations, and other officials, had had to wait in the heat. Whether or not they were impressed by the mighty plane that at last soared into view, Adzhubei and the other Khrushchev aides and speechwriters who later chronicled the trip in Face to Face with America certainly were: “He arrived in a powerful swept-winged colossus that had no equal anywhere,” that was “carried across the ocean not only by its mighty engines . . . but by the solicitous and considerate strength of millions of Soviet toilers, of all progressive people on earth, by their indomitable and passionate desire for peace.”[1645]

The Americans had prepared a stunning ceremony, complete with red carpet, anthems, and a twenty-one gun salute. Khrushchev was “terribly impressed. Everything was shining and glittering. We didn’t do such things in our country; we always did things in a proletarian way, which sometimes, I’m afraid, meant they were done a bit carelessly.” He was also moved: “It was a very solemn moment, and it made me immensely proud; it even shook me up a bit. Not because they were welcoming me in this way, but because that’s the way they were meeting a representative of a great socialist country.”[1646]

Khrushchev’s dark medal-bedecked suit was elegantly tailored. He was surprised to find Eisenhower in civilian dress rather than a military uniform. Expecting the president to try to intimidate him from the start, Khrushchev had prepared a ploy of his own. Several days earlier Moscow had launched a rocket to the moon. Khrushchev wanted to rub in Soviet space superiority by presenting Eisenhower with a replica of the pennant that arrived on the moon the day before he did in Washington. He had nearly salivated at the thought of doing so in front of television cameras at Andrews Air Force Base. Only after Troyanovsky and other aides objected did he agree to tender the president the polished wooden box in the Oval Office. According to official American minutes of the occasion, “the President accepted the souvenir with interest and appreciation.” Actually Eisenhower was appalled by Khrushchev’s crudity but tried not to show his anger. “After all,” he told his son later, “this fellow might have been sincere.”[1647]

After the airport ceremony Khrushchev and his wife squeezed into the back seat of an open limousine with the president and headed down the fifteen-mile parkway toward Washington. Except for a few who smiled and waved, most people lining the route were stone-faced and strangely silent. Khrushchev later claimed a special car had driven the route a few minutes before with a sign reading NO APPLAUSE—NO WELCOME TO KHRUSHCHEV.

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