Chapter 79 The Kitchen Debate
"The young comrade vividly explained some questions to the people, and we leaders must applaud him!" Under Khrushchev's guidance, everyone present, including Nixon, applauded Selov. Khrushchev came to the podium with a consistently conceited expression and asked Nixon, "How many years has the United States been founded?" Although Nixon didn't know what Khrushchev meant, he still answered Khrushchev's question.
"The United States in 182 years is this level? Haha! We have also been in the founding of the People's Republic of China forty-two years. Now there is still some insignificant gap between the living standards of the Soviet Union and the United States! But soon..." Khrushchev waved his hand vigorously, "We can meet the same standards of the United States!" Including some representatives from various industries who came in, everyone was inspired by Khrushchev's words. The tsunami-like applause rang for a long time. All the Soviets in the entire expo were full of longing expressions. Khrushchev said to Nixon confidently, "When we catch up with you and pass by you, we will definitely wave to you!" After saying that, Khrushchev waved to two electronic cameras, which was the United States that Khrushchev imagined.
Selov faced Khrushchev like a sculpture, stretched out his hand and saluted a military salute, making a mechanical voice, "Union of the Soviet Socialist Republic! Ula! Communist Party of the Soviet Union! Ula! Khrushchev, Ula..."
Alliance of Soviet Socialist Republics! Ula! Communist Party of the Soviet Union! Ula! Khrushchev! Ula...
Khrushchev used a confident look to accept the cheers like a tsunami. The sounds of Ula changed the expressions of the Americans around Nixon and scattered in the fair. Even though Nixon did not express his expression on his face, he was shocked by this powerful collective power.
Khrushchev obviously wanted to take this opportunity to launch an attack. As for the target, the US Vice President Nixon, Khrushchev liked debate very much, and of course he often humiliated his opponents under the guise of debate. The more he went, he became more and more excessive. Some members of the Central Presidium were criticized, including Brezhnev and Sherepin.
"Look at this ordinary worker!" Khrushchev pointed his hand at the Soviet workers who were working not far away from everyone, saying, "Look at this mental outlook and the satisfaction obtained in labor, is this like what some people call a communist slave?"
"We have such workers too!" Nixon was not willing to be outdone, and pointed to an American worker and said, "We are powerful with people like him! But these people, the Soviets and the Americans, can work well for peace together, just as they work together to build this exhibition hall. If you plan to catch up with our competition and benefit our peoples and other peoples, then we must exchange ideas freely. You don't have to be afraid of exchange of ideas, after all, you don't understand everything." Khrushchev heard something in Nixon's words and shouted: "If I don't understand everything, then you know nothing about communism except fearing it."
"We may be in some areas, you surpass us; for example, in developing rockets to explore outer space; similarly, in some other areas, we are ahead of you - for example, in color TV." Nixon and Khrushchev were chatting while walking, and both of them were trying their best to convince each other and let the other party accept their ideas. This made Serov understand how the real big man spoke, and it wasn't that good? I didn't see how high the level was.
"Vice President Nixon, you are wrong. The Soviets are better than the United States in any field! This includes any technology, whether it is used in military or in life!" Khrushchev said without concession at all.
The two walked and chatted to a counter with an American interior home decoration, which read a typical American residence! Selov, who was following Khrushchev, frowned and looked at the beautifully decorated counter with a washing machine, juicer, dishwasher, and refrigerator! All fools knew that this should be the famous kitchen debate place in history.
Nixon: "We don't want to surprise the Russian people. We want to show our diversity and the right to make choices. We don't want everything to be decided by a high-ranking government official, but it's the man who makes all the houses exactly the same. Wouldn't it be a better thing if we could compete on the quality of the dishwasher and not spend all our energy on improving the range of the rocket? Isn't that the kind of competition you want?"
"Then you will definitely lose. No one can doubt the quality of Soviet products! As long as we keep the quality of our products, we can use anything we manufacture!" Khrushchev said with a confident smile, "Of course I agree with some of your views, but you have also seen our products, and it is not the same as what you said!"
Nixon said as he poked Khrushchev's chest with his finger to increase his tone, "It's meaningless to discuss who is stronger at this time. If a war breaks out, neither of our countries will be the winner." Nixon paused for a moment, as if he wanted to wait for Khrushchev's reaction. Khrushchev smiled unpredictably and let Nixon continue to speak. "I hope the Prime Minister understands the full meaning of our speech. If we put any of our two powerful countries in such a situation and don't obey the mercy, we will have to fight, and there is no other choice, and that is to play the most destructive trick in the world."
"We want to be friendly with all countries, including the United States, of course!" Khrushchev finished the debate between the two.
The two did not continue to argue, but just took a step forward when Nixon reached out and reminded Nixon to pay attention to the impact. This of course caused the reaction of the American guard behind Nixon. Selov twitched his lips and smiled without saying a word. After the two ended the debate, Khrushchev took other senior Soviet officials to another booth and said lightly, "Mr. Nixon, two of the four guards behind you just now were in a state of shape and wanted to step forward to stop me. One of them clenched his fists with his right hand, and the remaining one seemed a little nervous!"
"General Selov seems to be very professional. At your age, you don't seem to be a real combat hero!" Nixon's impression of Selov is now quite bad. Today, Selov has made too many things ruined.
"Mr. Dulles' cancer is already very serious. Mr. Nixon actually visited him specifically before coming to the Soviet Union. It seemed a bit rude!" Selov looked at Nixon with a smile, and saw that the other party's face was pale, but it was quite calm! He knew that the later reports he had made were true. Before coming to the Soviet Union, Nixon had really visited Secretary of State Dulles, the brother of the Director of the CIA.
Chapter completed!