Editing Kitchen Debate (section)

==History==
In 1959, the [[Soviet Union]] and [[United States]] agreed to hold exhibits in each other's countries as a cultural exchange to promote understanding. This was a result of the [[Lacy-Zarubin Agreement|1958 U.S.–Soviet Cultural Agreement]]. The Soviet exhibit in [[New York City]] opened in June 1959, and Vice President Nixon was on hand the following month to open the U.S. exhibit in Moscow. Nixon took Soviet First Secretary [[Nikita Khrushchev]] on a tour of the exhibit. There were multiple displays and consumer goods provided by more than 450 American companies. The centerpiece of the exhibit was a [[geodesic dome]] that housed scientific and technical experiments in a {{convert|30,000|sqft|m2|adj=on}} facility. The Soviets purchased the dome at the end of the Moscow exhibition.<ref name="auto">{{Cite journal|last=Richmond|first=Yale|date=July 2009|title=The 1959 Kitchen Debate|journal=Montpelier|volume=54, 4|pages=42–47}}</ref>

[[William Safire]] was the exhibitor's press agent, and he recounted that the Kitchen Debate took place in a number of locations at the exhibition, but primarily in the kitchen of a suburban model house that was cut in half for easy viewing.<ref name="safire">Safire, William. [https://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/opinion/24safire.html "The Cold War's Hot Kitchen"], ''The New York Times'', Friday, July 24, 2009.</ref> This was only one of a series of four meetings that occurred between Nixon and Khrushchev during the 1959 exhibition. Nixon was accompanied by [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|President Eisenhower]]'s younger brother [[Milton S. Eisenhower]], then president of [[Johns Hopkins University]].<ref>{{Cite news|title=Remembrances of the Great 'Kitchen Debate'|last=Mohr|first=Charles|date=July 25, 1984|work=New York Times}}</ref>

Khrushchev surprised Nixon during the first meeting in the [[Moscow Kremlin|Kremlin]] when he protested the [[Captive Nations|Captive Nations Resolution]] passed by the [[86th United States Congress|US Congress]], which condemned the Soviet Union for its "control" over the "captive" peoples of [[Eastern Bloc|Eastern Europe]] and called upon Americans to pray for those people. After protesting the actions of the U.S. Congress, he dismissed the new technology of the U.S. and declared that the Soviets would have all of the same things in a few years and then say "Bye bye" as they surpassed the U.S.<ref name="universal">{{cite news|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G5I9h6CFaM|title=Nixon in USSR Opening US Fair, Clashes with Mr. K|agency=Universal International News|publisher=YouTube|date=July 1959}}</ref>

Khrushchev criticised the large range of American gadgets. In particular, Khrushchev saw that some of the gadgets were harder to use than the traditional way. One of these devices was a handheld lemon juicer for tea. He criticized the device, saying that it was much easier to squeeze the juice out by hand and the appliance was unnecessary. Khrushchev asked Nixon if this device was standard in American kitchens. Nixon admitted some of the products had not hit the U.S. market, and were prototypes.<ref>Larner, John W. "Judging the Kitchen Debate." ''OAH Magazine of History'' 2, no. 1 (1986): 25–27. Accessed November 14, 2020. {{JSTOR|25162497}}.</ref> Khrushchev satirically asked "Don't you have a machine that puts food into the mouth and pushes it down?", a reference to [[Charlie Chaplin]]'s 1936 film ''[[Modern Times (film)|Modern Times]]''.<ref name="Pilcher2008">{{cite book|author=Jeffrey M. Pilcher|title=Food in World History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G79YuDx3ORsC&pg=PA97|date=2008|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-38581-2|page=97}}</ref> Nixon responded that at least the competition was technological rather than military. Both men agreed that the United States and the Soviet Union should seek areas of agreement.<ref name="universal" />

The second visit occurred in a television studio inside the American exhibit. In the end, Khrushchev stated that everything that he had said in their debate should be translated into English and broadcast in the U.S. Nixon responded, "Certainly it will, and everything I say is to be translated into Russian and broadcast across the Soviet Union. That's a fair bargain." Khrushchev vigorously shook hands to this proposal.<ref name="universal" />

Nixon argued that the Americans built to take advantage of new techniques, while Khrushchev advocated for Communism by arguing that the Soviets built for future generations. Khrushchev stated, "This is what America is capable of, and how long has she existed? 300 years? 150 years of independence and this is her level. We haven't quite reached 42 years, and in another 7 years, we'll be at the level of America, and after that we'll go farther."<ref name="hunt">{{cite web |url=http://www.foia.cia.gov/sites/default/files/document_conversions/16/1959-07-24.pdf |title=Kitchen debate transcript |date=July 24, 1959 |website=www.foia.cia.gov |access-date=May 13, 2019 |archive-date=June 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160603085919/http://www.foia.cia.gov/sites/default/files/document_conversions/16/1959-07-24.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> Safire reported that [[Leonid Brezhnev]] was present and attempted to obstruct his photos.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/Safir|title=William Safire Oral History Interview}}</ref>

The third visit occurred inside the kitchen on a cutaway model home that was furnished with a [[dishwasher]], [[refrigerator]], and [[Kitchen stove|range]]. It was designed to represent a $14,000 home that a typical American worker could afford ({{Inflation|US|14000|1959|r=-3|fmt=eq}}).<ref name="auto" />