The Unbearable Lightness of Khrushchev's Diplomacy

© RIA NovostiNikita Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev - Sputnik International
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October 12 marks 50 years since a shoe was first used as a tool of diplomacy, when the Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev banged his shoe on a desk during a session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

October 12 marks 50 years since a shoe was first used as a tool of diplomacy, when the Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev banged his shoe on a desk during a session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

By 1960, many former colonies had gained independence, and this was the focus of this memorable UN session attended by the leaders of many countries. Khrushchev naturally gave a fiery anti-colonial speech. A representative of the Philippines, which was both a Spanish and U.S. colony, took the floor after Khrushchev and committed an unforgivable gaffe in the minds of the Soviet delegation when he said: "It is our view that the declaration proposed by the Soviet Union should cover the inalienable right to independence not only of the peoples and territories still under the rule of Western colonial powers, but also of the peoples of Eastern Europe and elsewhere, which have been deprived of the free exercise of their civil and political rights and which have been swallowed up, so to speak, by the Soviet Union."

Khrushchev was outraged by this affront, and he gave vent to his emotions. He banged his fist on the desk before using his shoe. The most amusing aspect of the whole affair was that the straitlaced Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko also had to take off his shoe and follow his boss's example.

Kuzka's mother as a secret weapon

This episode acquired all the characteristics of a legend, including multiple interpretations. Khrushchev's son Sergei maintained that his father banged his shoe to attract attention. However, it is more likely that the hot-headed Soviet leader acted on a whim, trying to regain the floor at any cost. Khrushchev's impulsive style on the international stage can hardly be called diplomatic.

Many of the expressions he used in his official speeches were also far from diplomatic. Unlike all other Soviet leaders, he almost never read from a prepared text. He was a gifted speaker, but he did not shy away from coarse language to express himself.

Khrushchev called the Filipino representative who prompted his famous outburst a "lackey" (translators spent a long time looking for the adequate English term). On another occasion, he told then Vice President Richard Nixon, who was in Moscow for a visit, that "the American proposals reek of horse manure." He famously told Western diplomats, "We will bury you!" Once he promised to show the United States "Kuzka's mother." In Russian, this expression means to "punish someone" but his interpreter gave a literal translation. The Americans thought that "Kuzka's mother" was the code name for some secret weapon. When asked about the Soviet suppression of the uprising in Hungary during his trip to the United States, Khrushchev said that "the Hungarian issue is stuck in some people's throats like a dead rat - they are disgusted but they can't spit it out."

There are many stories like this from his career, but a person's shortcomings are usually just an extension of his positive qualities, and this applies to statesmen as well. Today, Khrushchev is too often unfairly depicted as a buffoon. He was a complex person, filled with blatant contradictions, as Lenin said about Leo Tolstoy.

As the last faithful communist in the top Soviet position, Khrushchev sincerely believed in the ultimate triumph of communism all over the world. He was convinced that communism would "bury" capitalism and the Soviet Union would "catch up and surpass America." He truly believed that "the current generation of the Soviet people will live under communism." And with his characteristic passion and candor, he let the "capitalist-imperialists" know it.

That being said, Khrushchev was equally sincere in his desire for peaceful coexistence with the "capitalist-imperialists." He did his best to forge respectful if not friendly relationships with Western leaders, and he took offence when presidents or prime ministers did not take his outstretched hand. His personality was a strange combination of naivete and a peasant's shrewdness, which sometimes bordered on wisdom and sometimes on stupidity.

The battle for the Third World

The shoe incident at the United Nations pales in comparison with Khrushchev's other, much more serious foreign policy adventures. Despite his zealous faith in the ultimate triumph of communism, he did not expect countries like the United States and Britain to go communist in the foreseeable future. So he focused his attention on Third World countries, which he helped move towards "the socialist road of development."

Not all the leaders in the Soviet camp truly followed this road. Cuba's Fidel Castro was more like the exception that proves the rule. Many heads of former colonies remained ideologically uncommitted, while others resorted to impudent bluffing, or accumulated personal power, all the while gladly accepting Soviet economic aid and weapons. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser was a classic example of this type of leader, and yet he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union.

Khrushchev's proactive policies in the Third World greatly irritated Western leaders. They did not want to lose their influence in their former colonies, which occupied important strategic positions and abounded in mineral resources. This was the underlying cause of the Cold War, which soon extended all over the world and at times escalated into hot and bloody conflicts. But the blood is on Khrushchev's hands. Stalin took no interest in the Third World and had no plans for a global revolution. He was quite content with the post-war Soviet sphere of influence in Eastern Europe and Asia.

Bluffing and blackmail

But this was not all. Khrushchev was personally responsible for another, much more dangerous trend in world politics. With breathtaking recklessness, Khrushchev constantly bluffed to the West, exaggerating the Soviet Union's nuclear potential and military capabilities. Moreover, he used the nuclear threat to deliberately blackmail America and Western Europe. Some incidents are truly incomprehensible. Khrushchev took a liking to Sen. Hubert Humphrey during his visit to Moscow. Khrushchev asked him what city he was from. When the senator responded that he was from Minneapolis, Khrushchev drew a red circle around Minneapolis on a map and said to his stunned guest: "So that I don't forget that this city should be spared when our missiles are launched."

People from Khrushchev's inner circle said that he was not really planning to go to war. However, he constantly played with fire, and his gambling led directly to the Cuban Missile Crisis and the brink of a nuclear war. In the end, Khrushchev had enough common sense to back down, but the crisis could have been avoided altogether. But then Khrushchev would not have been Khrushchev.

In one of the best books about this outstanding and contradictory politician, "Khrushchev: The Man and His Era", the American historian William Taubman (unfortunately we don't yet have such unbiased authors) rightly noted that for Khrushchev the outside world represented both a mortal threat and the irresistible temptation of world domination.

Whatever his flaws, Khrushchev should be given credit for his achievements. His relentless activity on the world stage did not destroy the Iron Curtain but made it much more transparent. He opened the Soviet Union up to the outside world, and let fresh air into a country that Stalin had turned into something between a besieged fortress and an enormous concentration camp. Even Khrushchev's terrible foreign policy blunders became a lesson for his successor. Perhaps the detente would not have been reached so quickly had it not been for Khrushchev, the embodiment of arbitrary rule. Such is the dialectic of history.

The views expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.

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