Word: khrushchev
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...MESS ON THE FARM. Despite his proud proclamations of expertise in agriculture (he devoted more speeches to crop yield, fertilizer and seed bulls than any 20 national leaders), Khrushchev's farm programs were disastrous. He fell for one oversimplified solution after another, kept reshuffling the administrative setup for agriculture, and dreamed of better fertilizer-all to little avail. His "virgin lands" scheme showed promise this year, thanks to a hopeful harvest, but it was too late. > "GOULASH" COMMUNISM. Most of his people cheered when he announced that Communism must first give people a decent life and then think about...
...FAILURES AGAINST THE WEST. His adventure in Cuba two years ago ended in humiliation when the U.S. forced him to retreat. Where Stalin, armed with nothing tougher than tanks, had grabbed great swatches of territory and threatened other countries (Spain, Korea and Greece), Khrushchev, despite his ICBMs and thermonuclear terror, could gain nothing more than a small Caribbean island-and not even defend it. From the point of view of his critics, it was turning into a no-win policy, aggravated by ideological softness on capitalism. Military men also charged that he was relying on the nuclear deterrent too much...
...SATELLITES. He proclaimed the right of each national Communist Party to self-determination, but he let this concept go too far, losing control and causing disarray in the Eastern alliance. Rumania, for instance, would not play ball with Russia's self-serving Comecon (common market); and Hungary, which Khrushchev brutally suppressed during the 1956 rebellion, became daring enough to allow scornful "political cabaret" acts to have free reign. All this illustrated the dictator's classic problem: once he loosens his grip, it is hard to know where, when, or if things will stop...
...GERMANY. Khrushchev scandalized many comrades by his planned trip to Bonn in January for conferences with Chancellor Ludwig Erhard. Coming on top of his offhand treatment of Walter Ulbricht's East Germany (the long-promised separate peace treaty has yet to be signed), this caused the suspicion that Khrushchev might want to make some sort of deal with West Germany, a country regularly denounced as neo-fascist by Moscow propaganda...
...CULT OF PERSONALITY." He condemned it in Stalin, but he erected one around himself. His clowning, boorishness, shoe-pounding and endless references to buffaloes, wolves, tigers and housecleaners could at first be refreshing, in a weird way. But gradually Khrushchev became, in the words of the French Communists, "too Grand Guignol." Besides, he was stubborn and intractable. There were growing signs that the comrades were getting desperately tired...