July 24, 1959:  Nixon and Khrushchev’s “Kitchen Debate” On this day in 1959, then-vice president Richard Nixon encountered Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev at the American National Exhibition in Moscow.  Ironically, it was in the display of a model American kitchen that Nixon and Khrushchev got into a heated argument about capitalism versus communism, in what became known as “The Kitchen Debate.” For other interesting facts about President Nixon, check out the American Experience “Did You Know?” page here. Photo:  Library of Congress
Pop-upView Separately

July 24, 1959:  Nixon and Khrushchev’s “Kitchen Debate”

On this day in 1959, then-vice president Richard Nixon encountered Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev at the American National Exhibition in Moscow.  Ironically, it was in the display of a model American kitchen that Nixon and Khrushchev got into a heated argument about capitalism versus communism, in what became known as “The Kitchen Debate.”

For other interesting facts about President Nixon, check out the American Experience “Did You Know?” page here.


Photo:  Library of Congress

Source: to.pbs.org

July 10, 1990:  Gorbachev Re-Elected as Head of Communist Party in the USSR

On this day in 1990, politician Mikhail Gorbachev was re-elected for the last time as the Head of the USSR Communist Party.  Since he rose to power in 1985, Gorbachev was celebrated by many Soviets for bringing true reform to the Soviet Union, demanding greater economic and political freedom, moving toward free market economics and releasing political prisoners.  On the Cold War front, he sought to ease tensions with the United States.

Gorbachev’s success was short-lived, however, because in December of the year following his re-election, in the midst of terrible economic and political unrest, he was left with no choice but to resign as head of the Communist Party which led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

More than twenty years later, PBS NewsHour remembers the “Overthrow of Gorbachev.”

Source: to.pbs.org

Top