In July 1959, Eisenhower sent Nixon to the Soviet Union to represent the United States at the opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow, the Soviet capital. While touring the exhibit with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, the pair stopped at a model of an American kitchen.
There they engaged in an impromptu discussion about the American standard of living that quickly escalated into an exchange over the two countries’ ideological and military strength. Nixon’s performance in the “Kitchen Debate” further raised his stature back in the United States.
In this photo, Vice President Nixon points a finger towards Soviet Premier Khrushchev to make a point during the so-called “Kitchen Debate” of capitalism versus communism at the American National Exhibition in Moscow’s Sokolniki Park.
The exchange between the two men was videotaped and later shown on both American and Soviet television. The American exhibition followed the Soviet exhibition the previous month in New York.
