Page History: Nikita Khrushchev
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Page Revision: Sunday, 30 June 2013 19:42
Nikita Khrushchev was the leader of the Soviet Union and its Communist Party during part of the
Cold War. He directly followed
Stalin as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union starting in 1953, but did not become Premier of the Soviet Union until 1958.
Speech Relevance
Khrushchev is mentioned in both speeches, '
A Time For Choosing' and '
Encroaching Control'.
In '
A Time For Choosing':
If we continue to accommodate, continue to back and retreat, eventually we have to face the final demand--the ultimatum. And what then? When Nikita Khrushchev has told his people he knows what our answer will be? He has told them that we are retreating under the pressure of the Cold War, and someday when the time comes to deliver the ultimatum, our surrender will be voluntary because by that time we will have weakened from within spiritually, morally, and economically. He believes this because from our side he has heard voices pleading for "peace at any price" or "better Red than dead," or as one commentator put it, he would rather "live on his knees than die on his feet."
From '
Encroaching Control':
Three and a half months before his last visit to this country, Nikita Khrushchev said, "We can't expect the American people to jump from capitalism to communism but we can assist their elected leaders in giving them small doses of socialism until one day they will awaken to find they have communism." Well this isn't exactly a new thought.
Many sources online say this is mis-quoted, that Khrushchev never said this.
Source Links
Nikita Krushchev (Wikipedia)