PBS American Experience program “Cold War Roadshow” will include a scene of Khrushchev’s trip to San Luis Obispo on the Southern Pacific.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0vcGa_TMYc
http://digitallibrary.usc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p15799coll54/id/795
Interesting. Assuming they went up the Coast line from LA to SLO, they went right through Vandenberg AFB, a major test site for missiles (or was). I wonder if Nikita knew that…
Excerpt from Memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev
http://kiatipis.org/Books_Hosted_gr/Nikita.Khrushchev/Memoirs-of-Nikita-Khrushchev[Vol3].pdf
Now a few words about the train. American railroad cars have good springs that give a soft ride. They are very comfortable and it’s a pleasure to travel in them. In general, the entire railroad system seems to be on a high level…
According to the schedule, the train stopped at a particular station [San Luis Obispo]. A lot of people had gathered there, apparently from nearby towns. I don’t know who these people were. When the train stopped everyone was staring at the railroad cars. They were obviously trying to get a look at the Soviet delegation. Apparently an announcement about us had been made earlier.
I suggested to Lodge: “Let’s go out on the platform.”
“What are you saying? I wouldn’t advise it.”
But in my view, since the people had come ther
“The prime minister is a man of the people, but he is also a man, if you get my meaning.”
I watched the show, while I was also reading this forum. My interest turned back to the show when I saw he was riding another train with catenary, apparently the NEC between NY and DC.
Top Security for Nikita’s Train Ride
NEW YORK, September 17 (UPI) — Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev’s train ride from Washington to New York today will be as suspense-packed as a movie spy thriller. His crack 15-car express train will be preceded by a pilot train carrying Secret Service men, Soviet secret police, and Pennsylvania Railroad detectives. Every inch of the route will be scanned for trouble, with the passengers on the pilot train packing pistols instead of luggage. Right after this train will come the Khrushchev express, made up of two locomotives, empty coach cars, three luxury parlor cars, a diner and a glass-paneled observation car.
Nikita Khrushchev (C) smiles and gestures as he talks to Henry Cabot Lodge (foreground), U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., during the Soviet premier’s train ride from Washington to New York today. Also shown are Soviet Ambassador Mikhail A. Menshikev (R), U.S. Ambassador to Moscow Llewellyn Thompsen (center foreground) and State Department interpreter Alexander A. Kelevsky (lower right), who translates Khrushchev’s words as the train passed through Philadelphia.
Excerpt from Khrushchev The Man and His Era by William Taubman
http://www.booknotes.org/Watch/168865-1/William+Taubman.aspx
Of all the construction projects Khrushchev superintended, the biggest and most important was the Moscow Metro, a classic Stalinist project built in a quintessentially Stalinist way. What’s more, having met and mastered this impossible challenge and having been lavishly rewarded for doing so, Khrushchev was forever wedded to the techniques that worked miracles on the Metro but proved less successful later on.
The Metro was to be the best and most expensive on earth—not because the people of Moscow really needed it (if their welfare had been the aim, surface transport would have been more cost-efficient, leaving funds for underdeveloped housing and services) but because it served
On train through Vandenberg AFB
Found here: http://adst.org/2013/10/khrushchev-visits-america-a-cold-war-comedy-of-errors-act-ii/
"Well, we went up to San Francisco on the train the next day. The reason for going on the train was that he was supposed to see Vandenberg Air Force Base, where they had an early generation of missiles — were they the Jupiters? — and they were visible from the train window. So the idea was — and it’s rather simplistic — the idea was, we’ll go by there, and these missiles will be up…they’d be up and he’d see them, and he’d say, “Oh, gracious, these people are powerful, I’d better watch it.” As a matter of fact we were much more [powerful]. They were way, way behind, they didn’t have anything like that.
Well, as a matter of fact when we went by Vandenberg Air Force Base, Khrushchev made it a point to be giving an interview to a number of correspondents sitting with his back to the window through which one could see Vandenberg Air Force Base, and he never looked out the window. In fact one of the correspondents said, “Oh, Mr. Prime Minister, we are passing Vandenberg Air Force Base.” And Khrushchev said, “Yes? So?” You know, that kind of thing. He made it a point not to look at the missiles. I mean it was pretty obvious to him what this was all about."
[:-,] Heck, the same could be said even today about some US cities . . . [swg]
Thanks again, Mike, for digging this up and sharing it. [bow] It provides some interesting insights into that culture, and its priorities and efforts - note that all this was in the midst of the Great Depression, and before World War II.
- Paul North.
I wonder if on this trip he landed at Idlewild airport. Where exactly was Car 54? What were Tutie and Muldoon doing? Could have been a conspiracy!
Khrushchev’s due at Idlewild to take off, but not to land there. His plane, Tupolev-114, landed without him (from Andrews A.F.B.), while he rode the Pennsy. In 1960, he sailed over on the Baltika, flew home.
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/worlds-biggest-airliner/query/114
Correction: Khrushchev’s TU-114 evidently remained at Andrews for the duration of his 1959 visit. Instead, the Air Force provided transportation NY-LA, SF-Des Moines, DM-Pittsburgh, and return to Andrews.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/2009/09/khrushchev-arrives-in-la.html
Khrushchev boarding PRR train (52 seconds)
http://dbsmaint.galib.uga.edu/cgi/news?query=id:wsbn32615
Khrushchev talking to reporter aboard SP train (first 3 minutes)
http://dbsmaint.galib.uga.edu/cgi/news?query=id:wsbn40957