K Blows Top: A Cold War Comic Interlude Starring Nikita Khrushchev, America's Most Unlikely Tourist (2009) - Plot & Excerpts
K Blows Top is a result of the personal obsession of the newsclip-collecting journalist, Peter Carlson. Ironically, his growing fascination with Khruschev mimicked the effects that K's cult of personality had on Americans during his 1959 tour of the US. Through instances like the press and the publics' maddened clamoring through a California supermarket to get a glimpse of K's perusing of the American grocery experience, Carlson shows the transformation of opinion towards this odd man in the height of the Cold War. In transaction after transaction, despite K's volatile reactions to verbal challenges from ardent Cold Warriors, Carlson argues that K's tour was a diplomatic success, that is, it melted hard opinions and revealed the humanity of people on both sides of the Iron Curtain and made people realize that what was truly at stake was not a viable option. A very interesting time period in our country's history is covered entertainingly and straightforwardly by the author. He backs up the bizarre events of Nikita Khrushchev's visit to the US with solid research. No wonder Americans were nervous over the Russian Menace! Khrushchev had a mecurial personality. The famous incident when he pounded his shoe on the desk at the United Nations was part of his calculated showmanship. And on his first trip to the US he was livid that due to security issues he couldn't visit Disneyland. This man had the power to launch nuclear weapons. On many issues described I actually agreed that Khrushchev had legitimate reasons to be angry with the US. Krushchev was the person who prevented nuclear holocaust during the Cuban Missle Crisis when he backed off from the American blockade. Krushchev had blood on his hands from his days under Joseph Stalin but was not an ogre like his former boss. I'm glad I read this book.
What do You think about K Blows Top: A Cold War Comic Interlude Starring Nikita Khrushchev, America's Most Unlikely Tourist (2009)?
I am loving this book - a day to day account of Nikita Khruschev's 1959 visit to the US.
—Lili
