Cultural Competition
Jan. 1, 1958 - Mikhail Menshikov appointed ambassador to U.S.
Jan. 27 - Russian-American Cultural Agreement signed
- 15,000 visit USSR, Ed Sullivan - 1
- Khru suspended testing Mar. 31
Apr. 27 - Nixon began South America trip to May 15
- visit to 8 countries, but opp. in Lima May 7-8
- "12 minutes of terror" in Caracas May 13
August - Adlai Stevenson, Hubert Humphrey trips to Russia
Nov. 10 - Khrushchev's Berlin ultimatum - 1
Jan. 4, 1959 - Deputy Premier Mikoyan trip to U.S.
Feb. 25 - Macmillan met with Khrushchev in Moscow, but ended by "toothache insult"
March - Billy Graham's first tour of Russia (2nd in 1984)
May 11 - Geneva Foreign Ministers Conference failed
May 27 - Berlin deadline expired (so did John Foster Dulles)
June 23 - Averill Harriman's "Alarming Interview" on Berlin
June 28 - Deputy Premier Kozlov trip to U.S.
- world nonstop record of 11 hrs in TU-114 designed by Andrei Tupolev
- to open NY trade fair, furs, cars, rockets
- saw ship Savannah Jn 30 in Camden on way to DC
- Russian icebreaker Lenin was 1st in 1958
July 19, 1959 - Congress proclaimed Captive Nations Week
Nixon's Trip to Moscow
July 23, 1959 - Nixon arrived in Russia
- set new 8 hr-45min. nonstop record in 707
July 24, 6 am - Nixon visit to Chaikovsky Street farmers market
July 24, 10 am - Nixon met Khrushchev at Kremlin
- group portrait with Khru, Kozlov, Nixon, Gregory Zhukov, 1st Deputy Premier Mikoyan, Ambass. L. Thompson, Milton Eisenhower
- The debate began in Khrushchev's office - 1
- Khru: he used to be poor also, shoveled cow -- and nothing smells worse.
- Nixon: pig -- smells worse
- Khru: "It stinks like fresh horse --"
July 24, 12 noon - start Sokolniki Park tour - 1
Impromptu debate took place in Pavilion; recorded on new Ampex color videotape - Telenews clip
debate continued at the free Pepsi stand, with Milton Eisenhower - 1
debate continued at the model home with GE electric kitchen
Nixon: "This is the newest model. This is the kind which is built in thousands of units for direct installation in the houses.... Our steel workers, as youb know, are on strike. But any steel worker could buy this house. They earn $3 an hour. This house costs about $100 a month to buy on a contract running 25 to 30 years."
Khrushchev: "The Americans have created their own image of the Soviet man and thinks he is as you want him to be. But he is not as you think. You think the Russian people will be dumfounded to see these things, but the fact is that newly built Russian houses have all this equipment right now. Moreover, all you have to do to get a house is to be born in the Soviet Union... Yet you say that we are slaves to communism."
July 24, 6pm - official opening ceremonies start second tour
July 24, 9pm - wine toasts end second tour
Khrushchev: "A good wine. To the elimination of all military bases on foreign lands."
Nixon: "I am for peace. We will drink to talking - as long as we are talking we are not fighting... One hundred years of life. I will drink to that."
Khrushchev: "When I reach 99 years, we will discuss the question of bases further."
Nixon: "You mean that at 99 you will still be in power? No free elections?"
July 25 - on 2nd day, Nixon toured Moscow
- Spaso House dinner
- 30 mile trip to Dacha guest house
July 26 - on 3rd day, Nixon met with Khru at the Dacha
- Moscow River boat ride - "Are you captive people?"
- 6-hour whitefish picnic in the trees near Dacha
- return to Spaso House
July 27 - on 4th day, Nixon began tour of Russia
- Leningrad shipyards
- Novosibirsk ballet
- Ural hydroelectric plant
- Sverdlovsk city council
- Petrolyarsk copper mine
- Beloyarsk nuclear power plant
Aug. 1 - on last 9th day, Nixon TV address from Moscow
Aug. 2 - Nixon trip to Poland
- Tomb of Unknown Soldier
- Warsaw Ghetto Shrine
- meeting with Gomulka
Aug. 5 - Nixon returned to U.S.
Sept 12 - Russian Luna II hit moon
Khrushchev Trip to the U.S.
Sept 15, 1959 - Khrushchev arrived in U.S. for 13 days
- helicopter ride over D.C.
- escorted by Henry Cabot Lodge to New York
- tour of Can Can set in Hollywod (no Disneyland)
- San Francisco, Roswell Garst farm in Iowa, steel mill in Pittsburgh
- Camp David meeting with Ike - bowling unknown in USSR
- "Spirit of Camp David" - Paris summit planned
- Ike agreed that Berlin "abnormal"
- Ike polls up from 49% in '57 to 66% in '59
Dec. 4 1959 - Ike began 18-day goodwill trip to 11 countries by jet
Feb. 10, 1960 - De Gaulle tested first French A-bomb
- De Gaulle had returned to power in the 1958 Algerian crisis and created the Fifth Republic on May 29, 1958
Feb. 13- Russia-Cuba Trade Pact
- Fidel Castro had won his revolution against Batista in 1959 and became the first successful Marxist leader in the American hemisphere
Feb. 25 - Ike began 10-day trip to South America
March 24, 1960 - Ike agreed to stop U.S. atomic tests
U-2 Crisis
April 9, 1960 - resumption of U-2 flights - possible ICBM site at Plesetsk
April 16 - Sino-Soviet split made public
May 1 - Gary Powers' U-2 shot down by SAM-2 missile
May 3 - "weather plane" cover story released to press
May 6 - U.S. named Powers as pilot of the "weather plane"
May 7 - Ike learned from Malik slip that Powers was alive
- 1st admission made that U.S. spied on Russia
- but no apology or admission of presidential responsibility
May 11 - Khrushchev displayed U-2 remains in Moscow's "second U.S. Exhibition"
- U-2 wreckage still on display at the Central Army Museum in Moscow
May 14 - Ike trip to Paris Big Four summit on Air Force One jet
- with secret camera in nose, unknown to Ike
May 15 - Khrushchev threat against U-2 bases; U.S. put on DefCon 3 alert
May 16 - Khrushchev cancelled Ike's Moscow visit; refused any summit agreements
May 19 - Ike left Paris after Khru shook fist
May 22 - Midas 2 launched -1st infrared spy satellite
July 1 - RB-47 shot down
Aug. 10, - Discoverer 13 launched
- first successful test, after 12 failures, of the CORONA system approved by Eisenhower Feb. 7, 1958, to use rocket-launched satellites with cameras that returned film to earth in a cannister.
Aug. 18, 1960 - CORONA satellite launched - 1st photo spy satellite
- the satellite "orbited the Earth for a day, and returned its canister to earth, where it was snatched out the air by a specially equipped aircraft on August 19. The camera carried on that flight would be retroactively designated the KH-1 (KH for KEYHOLE) and was cable of producing images with resolution in the area of 25-40 feet - a far cry from what would be standard in only a few years. It did yield, however, more images of the Soviet Union in its single day of operation than did the entire U-2 program" (quote from U.S. Satellite Imagery, 1960-1999 by Jeffrey T. Richelson)
Aug. 19, 1960 - Powers made confession during trial
- "deeply repentant and profoundly sorry"
- jailed in Russia until exchanged for Rudolf Abel in Feb. 1962
Sep. 21- Khrushchev arrived in U.S. for 25 days
- to attend United Nations session
- Nehru, Nasser, Tito, Sukarno plus 14 new nations
- Khrushchev pounded table during Macmillan's speech
- Khrushchev embraced Castro
Nov. 4, 1960 - Kennedy defeated Nixon 34,227,096 to 34,108,546
revised 4/5/02 by Schoenherr | Kitchen Debate | Cold War Policies
