President Dwight D. Eisenhower Requests U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union Lewellyn Thompson, the Nation’s Foremost Expert on the Soviets, to Attend a Strategy Session to Discuss the Upcoming 1959 United States Exhibition in Moscow

In 1958, in an effort to defuse Cold War tensions, the United States and Soviet Union agreed upon a mutual cultural exchange.  The Soviets held a trade show in New York in 1958, and in return the U.S. held an exhibition at Moscowʼs Sokolniki Park. It began on July 24, 1959, and Vice President Richard M. Nixon represented the United States at the ribbon cutting.  The exhibition included a complete house that the exhibitors said any American could afford.  It was filled with labor-saving and recreational devices intended to showcase capitalism and the high American standard of living. As Nixon and Khrushchev toured the house, they began a series of impromptu, hard-hitting ideological debates that covered the range of Soviet-American relations – the threat of atomic war, diplomacy by ultimatum, and economic progress. The most notable exchange occurred in the model Betty Crocker kitchen. Khrushchevʼs son Sergei, now a naturalized American citizen, recalled that Khrushchev and Nixon “go to this kitchen, and Nixon talks about American achievement and my father talks about Soviet achievement. They argue with each other about which system is better”. The two saw the world through the lens of the kitchen.

The Kitchen Debate was the first high-level meeting between American and Soviet officials since the 1955 Geneva “Big Four” Summit.  Khrushchev was  impressed with Nixonʼs tough mindedness and strong will, and the debate did much to increase Nixonʼs standing as a statesman and increase his chance of obtaining the 1960 presidential nomination. As the United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Thompson accompanied Nixon and stood with him as Nixon cut the ribbon to open the exhibition.

Lewellyn Thompson was one of the most important American diplomats of the 20th Century.  He was United States Ambassador to Austria from 1955-1957, and helped prepare the 1955 Geneva Summit Conference. He then became Ambassador to the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War. He served two separate tours in the administrations of Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson, and then acting as advisor to Richard M. Nixon.  Few Ambassadors faced as many crises as Thompson did in Moscow – the shooting down of a U.S. U-2 reconnaissance aircraft over Russia, the great confrontation between the U.S. and Soviet Union over Berlin and the building of the Berlin Wall, very difficult summits between Soviet Premier Khruschev and Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy, the August 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, and tensions over the Vietnam War.

Thompson’s friendliness and willingness to talk, combined with both patience and perseverance, made him extraordinarily effective in the often difficult Cold War dealings with the Soviet Union. He became well acquainted with the Soviet hierarchy, including Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev; in fact, he had even stayed at Khrushchevʼs private country dacha – which was highly unusual for a foreign diplomat – and had spent many hours with Khruschev, both alone and in meetings with other Soviet officials. Thompson would later be instrumental in avoiding nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Conference.

To prepare for the 1959 Moscow exhibition, President Eisenhower scheduled a strategy meeting at the White House, and as Thompson was the country’s leading expert on the Soviet Union, Ike wanted him to be present. Typed letter signed, on White House letterhead, Washington, January 15, 1959, to Thompson, requesting his presence at what was a major event in the Cold War. “Dear Tommy, This note is simply to confirm the invitation that has already been issued to you to join me and other individuals interested in the United States Exhibition to be held in Moscow next summer, at a luncheon to be held at the White House on Friday, January twenty-third, at 1:00.  I look forward to seeing you then, if not before.” The letter is a personalized one, and is signed with initials. It comes from the Thompson descendants.