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"Khrushchev in Iowa" 50th Anniversary:
Celebrating Agriculture's Contributions to International Understanding
Summary
The "Khrushchev in Iowa" anniversary event commemorates the fortuitous meeting and fruitful partnership of two unlikely allies: Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and Iowa corn farmer, Roswell Garst. Their cooperation reinvented Soviet agriculture and produced one of the few thaws in the Cold War. Working together in a time of extreme political polarization, they exemplified the way citizen diplomacy can overcome seeming deadlock. Their efforts weathered entrenched opposition in both their countries and a string of Cold War crises: the Hungarian uprising, the U-2 Incident, the Berlin Wall and the Cuban Missile Crisis. We follow their story and trace their legacy in the efforts of citizen diplomats today.
Garst's farm in Coon Rapids, Iowa was one of Khrushchev's stops on his 1959 trip to America - the first visit ever to this country by a sitting Communist Leader. Garst's explanation to his family and to others scandalized by the idea of an Iowa farmer talking and trading with the US's main ideological enemy, was very simple: "Hungry people are dangerous people."
Fascinated with the volume and quality of agricultural production in the United States, Khrushchev visited Coon Rapids, Iowa to see firsthand the exploding increases created by hybrid seed corn, mechanized agriculture, nitrogen fertilizer and other innovations. Khrushchev toured not just Roswell Garst's farm, but was hosted and welcomed by a variety of Iowa businesses: Hotel Fort Des Moines, Iowa State University, John Deere, and Bookey Meat Packing.
The 1959 historic meeting of a Soviet leader and an Iowa farmer in the American heartland has long been regarded as a shining moment in the midst of the Cold War-extending agricultural goodwill that continued for decades and perhaps helped to avoid nuclear holocaust. The exchanges they began continued for forty years - long after Khrushchev's fall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. As we approach the 50th anniversary of Khrushchev's visit in 1959, the story is timelier than ever in our current climate of international conflict.
We invite you to take part in the 50th anniversary of the historic visit of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to Iowa, which is designed to showcase the progressive traditions of Iowa, a state whose citizen diplomats have long used agricultural technology to promote international trade, dialogue, and peace.
A statewide "Khrushchev in Iowa" commemoration will be held August 27-29, 2009. Participants include US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, Nikita's son Sergei Khrushchev, and more than 40 Russian and US agribusiness leaders.
JOIN IN THIS UNIQUE CELEBRATION OF AN AMAZING HISTORICAL MOMENT AND BE A PART OF HISTORY
Want more information? Check out http://www.creatinggreatplaces.org/Khrushchev.aspx.