American tourists with eyes alert to such problems observed that Khrushchev was resorting to child labor to try to make up the difference. In fact, the Russian government admitted it was recruiting students from the schools to work for the farms and factories. Khrushchev announced his plan to limit most Russian youth to seven or eight years of schooling and said much of this would be at night. Only very select students would be allowed to go to college.{101}
As for the collectivized farms, even with half of the entire Russian population working on socialized farms the USSR had not been able to do more than feed the people at a bare-subsistence level. The fact that the American system permits a mere 12% of the people to produce more than Americans can either eat or sell stuns the comprehension of Red farm experts like Khrushchev. And he has made no secret of his resentment. Every so often he lashes out at the sluggish Russian farm program. These are direct quotes from his 1955 speech denouncing Russian agriculture:
“Lag in production.”
“Intolerable mismanagement.”
“State farms fail to fulfill their plan for an increase.”
“Hay fields remain unharvested.”
“No silo buildings are being erected.”
“Unfortunate situation has arisen with regard to seed.”
“For six years work has been in progress on the design of a tractor… and the tractor has not been designed.”
“Machinery is not being used on many collectivized farms.”
“There is considerable disorder on our state farms.”
“Cases of damage (labor sabotage) to trucks and tractors.”
“Absenteeism.”
“Undernourished cattle delivered to the State.”
“Serious shortcomings in pig breeding.”
“Production of milk decreased 10 percent.”
“Cows bearing calves amount to only 34 percent.”
“Weight of fattened pigs and wool clippings decreased.”
“Americans succeeded in achieving a high level of stock breeding.”
“In the United States this crop (corn) gives the highest harvest yield.”{102}
This was the reason Khrushchev abandoned the last Five-Year-Plan and substituted a Seven-Year-Plan. The latest plan is supposed to equal U.S. production by 1965, but in 1961 Khrushchev roared out his anger at the Russian farmers. There had been a continuous slump in farm production for five years!{103}
The Hazardous Life of a Communist Dictator
By 1958 Nikita Khrushchev had officially declared himself head of the Communist Party and the supreme dictator of all Russia. Nevertheless he had some cold, hard facts to face.
By that time the Red timetable of conquest was at a virtual standstill; the Iron Curtain was surrounded by NATO and SEATO defense bases with atomic warheads zeroed in to discourage Communist aggression.
Mao and Chou, the Red Chinese leaders, were becoming increasingly defiant, critical and independent.
It was taking more than six million soldiers and secret police to maintain the “state of siege” behind the Iron Curtain so as to give the appearance of “domestic tranquility.”
Russia had worn out her good offices in the U.N. and was beginning to feel the united pressure of the Western Bloc.
There was continued unrest in the satellites and large Red Army garrisons had to be stationed in each of them since the local armies were likely to join any uprising just as they did in Hungary.
There was also serious unrest in the Red Army where deep resentment against Khrushchev’s ruthless political decapitation of Marshal Zhukov still existed.
Khrushchev had been only partially successful in opening up the world market so that the Sino-Soviet Bloc could buy the things which its collectivized economy could not produce. He also faced the unpleasant fact that the Red economy was not in a position to pay for foreign trade because it was continually operating on the brink of bankruptcy.
Finally, and most important of all, Khrushchev lived under the constant threat of possible “regrouping” by disgruntled Red leaders to oust him from power the same way he had ousted Malenkov and Bulganin. Khrushchev felt a desperate need to boost his personal political status. He determined to achieve this by forcing the United States to honor him with an invitation to visit America.
Khrushchev’s Scheme to Force the U.S. to Invite Him to America
Ever since 1955 Khrushchev had tried to get the United States to invite him to America, but failed. Finally he decided to accomplish it by creating a crisis over Berlin. In 1958 he issued an ultimatum that America and her allies must get out of West Berlin by a certain date or he would turn the Communist East Germans loose on them.
This demand was a flagrant violation of all existing treaties. When President Eisenhower announced that any efforts to force us out of Berlin would be met with military resistance, Khrushchev immediately said he didn’t really want war and that he thought the whole thing could be worked out amicably if he just came to the United States and talked it over with the President. He also mentioned on several occasions that President Eisenhower would be welcome to visit Russia.
At first President Eisenhower demurred. Bringing the Communist dictator to the United States was precisely what Secretary Dulles had warned against right up to the time of his death. However, President Eisenhower felt that such a visit might impress Khrushchev with the power of the United States and deter him from hasty military action. Furthermore, the President felt much good might arise from a visit to Russia by the President of the United States. It would be in furtherance of his own program of “people to people” relations. Therefore an official invitation was extended to the Communist dictator—making him the first Russian ruler ever to visit the United States.
Was Khrushchev’s Visit a Mistake?
American strategists on Communist problems immediately warned that a serious tactical error was being made. Several of them testified before Congressional Committees. Eugene Lyons, a senior editor of The Readers Digest, a biographer of Khrushchev and a former press correspondent in Russia, called the invitation to Khrushchev “a terrific victory for Communism.” Then he continued:
“It amounts to a body blow to the morale of the resistance in the Communist world. It’s a betrayal of the hopes of the enemies of Communism within that world, and their numbers can be counted by the hundred million.
“The announcement of the invitation was a day of gloom and despair for nearly the whole population of every satellite country and for tens of millions inside Russia itself.”{104}
When asked if Khrushchev’s visit to the United States might cause him to slow down or abandon his plans for world conquest, Mr. Lyons replied:
“It’s a childish fairy tale. The Communists in high places are perfectly well informed about our material prosperity and political freedom. Khrushchev is not coming here to confirm his knowledge of our strengths, but to feel out our weaknesses. The notion that he will be impressed by our wealth and liberty to the point of curbing Communist ambitions is political innocence carried to extremes….
“In the first place, the new Soviet boss, despite his homespun exterior, is one of the bloodiest tyrants extant. He has come to power over mountains of corpses. Those of us who roll out red carpets for him will soon have red faces.”{105}