khrushchev visit to iowa

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Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev Visits Iowa Farm

The world focused on a farm outside Coon Rapids, Iowa, on September 23, 1959.  Nikita Khrushchev, the premier of the Soviet Union and its Community Party, was visiting the farm of hybrid corn salesman Roswell Garst to learn more about American agriculture production.  It was a period of heightened tension between the U.S. and Soviet Union with fears of nuclear war always in the background.  The “Iron Curtain” across Eastern Europe and the Berlin Wall restricted Western access to Soviet-dominated countries.  In 1956, Khrushchev in a speech to ambassadors from Western nation and speaking on behalf of the world communism predicted that “we will bury you.”  The In October of 1957, the Soviets had successfully launched Sputnik, the first successful orbiting satellite, demonstrating not only their capacity for a space program but long-range missiles capable of delivering nuclear warheads.  In the summer preceding Khrushchev’s visit to Iowa, the Soviet premier had debated Vice President Richard Nixon over the superiority of communism and capitalism, the famous “Kitchen Debate”, when Nixon hosted Khrushchev at an American cultural exhibit in Moscow.  Tensions were high. 

One of Khrushchev’s priorities was the expansion of Soviet agriculture, increasing production and decreasing dependence on the importation of food.  He was particularly focused on increasing Soviet production of corn and sent a delegation to the U.S. to study American corn production.  Garst managed to visit the Soviet representatives and gained permission to visit the Soviet Union to discuss the sale there of his hybrid varieties.  When he met with Khrushchev, the two men hit it off sharing their mutual interest in agriculture.  When Khrushchev announced his plans to visit the U.S., the first Soviet leader ever to set foot in the Western Hemisphere, he included Garst’s farm on his two-week itinerary. 

Flying in to the Des Moines airport on September 23, the Soviet leader was hosted at a dinner by the Iowa governor Hershel Loveless and Des Moines mayor Charles Iles.  A United Press International (UPI) story at the time reported his remarks in his after-dinner speech which was “brief and unmarked by humor.”  Taking issue with the way American press described Soviet efforts to improve their farming output as “a kind of Soviet economic menace,” Khrushchev asked “but the question is what kind of menace and who can our agricultural production hurt….Hardly anyone can content that the consumption of more butter and meat will make our people more aggressive.” 

The next day his motorcade headed west from Des Moines to the Garst Farm near Coon Rapids.  All along the way, crowds lined the roads to catch a glimpse of the leader of the communist world and America’s greatest enemy.  At the farm, flanked by an army of reporters, Garst took Khrushchev on a tour of the extensive hybrid corn fields and the farm machinery the farm used to plant and harvest it.  The two men sparred through a translator in a good natured way about newly developed Soviet hybrids.  

Khrushchev’s son Sergei recalled later that his father had been amazed that Garst’s extensive operation was managed by Roswell and his son and just a few farm employees.  Sergei said that a comparable Soviet farm would have required as many as 60 workers. 

American historian William Taubman described the relationship between the two men. “Not only did Khrushchev learn much from Garst about growing corn, he liked him no end as a person…Both men loved to gab. Khrushchev relished Garst’s cantankerousness, especially when it justified his own, such as when Garst bawled out Soviet farmers for sowing corn without fertilizing the soil.” 

From there, Khrushchev’s entourage traveled to Ames to look over the Swine Research Center of Iowa State University. One of the Soviets’ goals was to develop the corn-hogs combination that the U.S. had achieved in its Corn Belt.  Khrushchev later remarked to journalists that the visit to Iowa was "the most relaxed" of his visit to the U.S. 

Farm diplomacy between the two superpowers continued after the visit and even after Khrushchev’s ouster as the Soviet leader in 1964.  Roswell Garst’s nephew, Iowa banker John Crystal, continued contacts with agriculture counterparts. According to a summary of Crystal’s papers in the Iowa State University Archives, “Chrystal's ties to the Soviet Union began in 1958 when he met Nikita Khrushchev during the Soviet premier's visit to Iowa and the Garst family farm. In 1960 and 1963 Chrystal and Roswell Garst traveled together to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe as citizen ambassadors and agricultural advisors. In 1972, Garst and Chrystal hosted another Russian delegation to Iowa, this time to Coon Rapids. Between 1960 and 1989, Chrystal was invited repeatedly to visit the Soviet Union to offer advice about agriculture. He visited approximately sixteen times and led efforts to help modernize farming and agricultural infrastructure systems in Russia, Georgia, and Ukraine and to improve trade relations between those countries and the United States.” 

 For Further Reading: John Chrystal Archives at Iowa State University 

• http://findingaids.lib.iastate.edu/spcl/manuscripts/MS422.html “Khrushchev Visits Iowa Cornfields” 
• https://www.upi.com/Archives/1959/09/23/Khrushchev-visits-Iowa-cornfields/1112442791026/  
• Nikita Khrushchev “Biography”  https://www.biography.com/political-figure/nikita-khrushchev

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Khrushchev in Iowa

Coon Rapids, Iowa, was crawling with spies.

It was September 23, 1959, the day that Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev came to town to visit his friend, seed corn salesman Roswell Garst, and to witness cutting-edge American agricultural technology. The event drew hundreds of reporters and thousands of curiosity-seekers eager to catch a glimpse of the world’s leading Communist.

“The father of a friend of mine said that everyone I saw around Coon Rapids wearing a tie who I didn’t know was a spy,” says Liz Garst, Roswell’s granddaughter who was eight years old at the time. “I spent a lot of time checking out the cool spies on Main Street.”

Fifty years later, Liz and her sister Rachel are helping to remember that day with a three-day celebration titled “Khrushchev in Iowa.” William Taubman, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography  Khrushchev: The Man and His Era , kicks off the event with a talk on August 27 at Drake University in Des Moines. Following is a conference at the Hotel Fort Des Moines the next day, and a number of activities in Coon Rapids on Sunday, August 29. It’s a chance to commemorate what some historians see as the first thaw in the Cold War. If so, some credit must go to Roswell Garst, a man who, Liz says, “made the world very interesting.”

“My grandfather thought he could do anything he wanted,” Liz said. “He was the sort of guy who would write the Pope letters or get on the train to yell at the secretary of agriculture. He thought that what he said could influence things.” His big chance came through an unusual combination of factors.

Khrushchev had a problem: how to help the Soviet Union feed itself. He concluded that his country needed a corn belt and set about learning more about American agriculture.

A series of exchanges between the U.S. and the Soviet Union were arranged. Garst ended up showing the head of one Soviet delegation his farm and seed company in Coon Rapids, and in return was asked to visit the Soviet Union. During the trip, he and Khrushchev met and hit it off.

“Not only did Khrushchev learn much from Garst about growing corn, he liked him no end as a person,” says Taubman. “Both men loved to gab. Khrushchev relished Garst’s cantankerousness, especially when it justified his own, such as when Garst bawled out Soviet farmers for sowing corn without fertilizing the soil.”

Some Americans criticized Garst for trading with the enemy, and some claimed he was a Communist. Liz says her grandfather was simply a good capitalist who was doing what was right for business.

The Khrushchevs landed in the United States on September 15, 1959. Their twelve-day trip included stops in New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Camp David. Garst was the only individual the premier met with besides President Eisenhower.

Press coverage of the trip stirred excitement among the Soviet people, including Humanities Iowa board president Valentina Fominykh, who, as a child in Kazakhstan, remembered the pictures of Iowa cornfields as being “spectacular.” But Khrushchev was never able to replicate those cornfields back home.

Perhaps a greater legacy is the power of the individual to make a difference. “Roswell represented the first thaw in the Cold War,” Liz says. “He did it through the force of his will. We’re hoping that focusing on this anniversary will help young people to hear that message.”

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18 historic photos: Nikita Khrushchev's 1959 visit to Iowa

Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev Visits Farms, Research Center in Iowa, 1959

Description 

This film shows the news footage of Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev's visit to Iowa in 1959. The video focuses on Khrushchev at the Swine Research Center of Iowa State University . It shows him seeing how hogs were raised from birth to market .  He also visited the farm of Roswell Garst in Coon Rapids, Iowa. 

Transcript  from Nikita Khrushchev Video

Source-Dependent Questions 

• Based upon what you heard in the interviews, how would you characterize the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union? How is this similar or different from the other documents in the text set?
• Considering the suggestion of “(t)he best place to hold a summit meeting would be an Illinois cornfield.” In what ways could a meeting of this nature impact the interaction between nations?

Citation Information 

Khrushchev’s Visit to Iowa. 1959. WOI-TV Film Collection, Special Collections and University Archives, Iowa State University Library.

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