http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phpe0DsisbY

The Cuban Missile Crisis ended on October 28, 1962, when Soviet Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev ordered the removal of Soviet missiles from Cuba. In this video, Khrushchev’s son Sergei gives the Soviet perspective of the missile crisis. Of the Soviet Union’s involvement, he says: “Each great power have their obligation to protect their allies. They’re far, or close; they’re important or they’re not important. And when Castro, after Bay of Pigs, declare officially that he joined the Soviet Bloc, he put this obligation on my father’s shoulders.” He also speaks to the juxtaposition of how US and Soviet citizens responded to the crisis, saying: “For Americans, each such threat was like a shock. And here, because it was a psychological crisis, Americans thought it is end of the world. They tried to bring all this food in the shelters, waiting until it will be this apocalypse. For the Soviet Union, it was one of the crisis, because we lived through the two Berlin crisis, three Middle East crisis, Far East crisis. So it was no panic in the Soviets…. Nobody left the Moscow or the big cities. Nobody buy food. It was life as usual.”

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Khrushchev’s Son On The Cuban Missile Crisis appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHazLBTZUEs

On the evening of February 6, 1962, Press Secretary Pierre Salinger was asked by President Kennedy to track down and purchase 1,000 Cuban cigars “by tomorrow morning”. The next day when Salinger entered the Oval Office and gave President Kennedy the 1,200 Cuban cigars he had procured, he recalls: “He opens up his desk drawer and he pulls out the decree banning all Cuban products from the United States and signs it.” Later that year, Salinger would travel to Russia to met with Soviet leader Khrushchev, who gifted him 250 Cuban cigars. Salinger decided to try and get through customs with the cigars. When he told President Kennedy what he had brought back from Russia, Salinger says that Kennedy instructed him: “Do you realize the scandal there would be in this country if people found out about it? You’ve gotta get rid of these cigars. You’ve got to go to the head of US Customs and turn them over to him and he’s got to write a letter saying that he’s got them, because otherwise we’re going to be in deep trouble.”

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President Kennedy, Cigars, and The Cuban Embargo appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeiaA43eD_o

Walt Disney comments on the time Nikita Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Soviet Union’s Communist Party, tried to visit Disneyland during his United States visit in 1959. With Disneyland having recently opened on July 17, 1955 in Los Angeles, the mayor of Los Angeles felt his county could not guarantee Khrushchev’s safety and thus denied his visit. Disney says how he had planned for a photo op with the Soviet leader next to Disneyland’s “Submarine Voyage” ride so he could tell him: “Well, Mr. Khrushchev, here’s my Disneyland submarine fleet!”

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Walt Disney on Nikita Khrushchev’s Trip to Disneyland appeared first on Witnify.