K Blows Top

A Cold War Comic Interlude Starring Nikita Khrushchev

By: Peter Carlson

Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner

Khrushchev's 1959 trip across America was one of the strangest exercises in international diplomacy ever conducted. He told jokes, threw tantrums, sparked a riot in a San Francisco supermarket, wowed coeds in an Iowa home-economics class, and ogled Shirley MacLaine. He befriended and offended a cast of characters including Nelson Rockefeller and Marilyn Monroe.

The trip took place in the 50s, with the shadow of the hydrogen bomb hanging over his visit like the Sword of Damocles. As Khrushchev kept reminding people, he was a hot-tempered man with the power to incinerate America.

©2009 Peter Carlson (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"This hilarious account of Khrushchev's 1959 U.S. tour is also a supremely entertaining evocation of the history and atmosphere of Cold War America." ( Publisher's Weekly)

excellent research, great story

I loved this book. Incredible research goes into many anecdotes of K's visit to the state's, but also had a wonderful "big picture" narrative. this one is a must.

Funny But True

This book is worthwhile. It's a hoot and at the same time historically informative. That's rare. I remember when Mr. K came to the U.S. for this visit. I was just a kid. Carlson's book stirred memories of my family reading about Khrushchev waving to a crowd of poor people waiting to see him at an airport while ignoring a group of rich standing closer by. We were lower middle class and my dad worked in a factory that made heavy equipment. Consequently, my family liked reading that and warmed to him. Mr. K came to charm us, like an old Russian uncle with a talent for clowning, and to make us feel more at ease with Soviet communism. He knew how to endear himself with rough humor because he'd used that talent to survive Stalin. Listen to the book and see how much he resented the U.S. government preaching to him on the glories of capitalism, and how much a Marxist true believer he genuinely was. Read how hurt he was when he could not go to Disneyland (because his body guard couldn't guarantee his security there). He actually cried a little. Khrushchev wanted to meet and talk to Americans, so he sometimes snuck away from his guardians to do it. He snuck out onto a street in California one morning, for example, and posed for pictures with passersby who recognized him. When he left after about ten days there was an overall positive impression of him in my house. Unfortunately he spoiled it all a few months later when he came back like an ogre, banging his shoe on a desk at the U.N., trying to rally Third World countries against us, spitting out threats over U2's spying on the Soviet Union. I remember those events, too, and how we all went back to our original negative impression of him. Labeling these two visits bizarre is not exaggeration, yet they actually happened. Get the book.

Great story, outstanding reader.

All these things happened when I was too young to be aware of them but I sure was aware of Khrushchev, he was the man with the power to kill us all in a single day. This is a terrific story about a crazy year.

Great read!

This book was hilarious and clearly well researched. A very entertaining and well-crafted story.
The narrator did an excellent job capturing the various characters with unique voices.

Fascinating Look at History

We come so close so often merely from misunderstanding. This book is an excellent study in how America can break down the defenses of our enemies while our government can build them right back up. It sickens me to think that our U-2 blunder stretched the cold war by another 25 years and hardened the Soviet position.

This is a GREAT book that I am so glad was written. Well presented too.

Chris Reich