Finding Common Ground Early On

September 9, 2009 by Jonathan Movroydis | Filed Under Richard Nixon, Russia 

In the UK’s Daily Telegraph, Jack Masey — an author and USIA (United States Information Agency) staffer during the famous “Kitchen Debates” at the American exhibition in Moscow in 1959 — underlines the long term impact of early cultural exchange with the Soviet Union:

During its six-week run, more than 2,700,000 Soviets visited “A Corner of America” in Sokolniki Park. Today, the 1959 exchange of national exhibitions is viewed as one of the most important cultural encounters of the Cold War.

But whether or not the United States succeeded 50 years ago in changing the hearts and minds of Soviet fair-goers, one thing is abundantly clear: we made contact with people we hardly understood and they with us. And, more frequently than not, we found common ground.

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