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Winter 2003
PDF version 
It’s hard to find anyone who
still thinks communism is a good idea. The notion of
a government-run economy has little credibility these
days.
Yet there was a time, not so long
ago, when the Soviet Union and the United States vied
with one another in a global competition to determine
which economic system could provide a better life for
its people. And every U.S./Soviet encounter, no matter
how minor, took on a symbolic importance that seemed
to reflect on the merits of one system or the other.
One of the more curious Cold War confrontations
— the Kitchen Debate — took place in 1959
at the American National Exhibit in Moscow, where Vice
President Richard Nixon and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev
engaged in a bit of (surprisingly good-natured) ideological
jousting. The two Cold Warriors bantered nonstop as
they made their way past displays that showcased the
latest American consumer goods, and at one point Khrushchev
turned to ask Nixon a question:
Khrushchev: How long has
America existed? Three hundred years?
Nixon: One hundred and fifty
years.
Khrushchev: One hundred and
fifty years? Well then we will say America has been
in existence for 150 years and this is the level she
has reached. We have existed not quite 42 years and
in another seven years we will be on the same level
as America. When we catch you up, in passing you by,
we will wave to you.
Well, that never came to pass. By
the end of the 20th century the Soviet Union had disintegrated;
communism had all but disappeared; and Nikita Khrushchev’s
son, Sergei, had emigrated to the United States, where
he taught international relations at Brown University.
Note: The CNN web site has a complete
transcript of the Kitchen Debate, and it’s definitely
worth looking at — if for no other reason than
to get a sense of how much Nixon and Khrushchev enjoyed
sparring with each another. http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/14/documents/debate/
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