Kitchen Debate: We Buried Them

On a wall outside the exclusive Black Pine Circle School in Berkeley, Calif., is a hand-painted mural. Each year graduating eighth-graders decide on their own what they will add to the mosaic. Prominently displayed on the wall is a large hammer-and-sickle. Below the image is the statement: "Capitalism Will Fail!"

Perhaps it will. But if it does, chances are that the aspiring little Fidel -- or little Che -- who scrawled that bit of graffiti will have a hard time adjusting to public schooling.

The tuition at the Black Pine Circle is $17,000. It's doubtful that mommy and daddy would have been able to afford the exclusive school were it not for capitalism. National Review magazine summed up the ironic situation well: "Capitalism hasn't failed these spoiled snot-goblins. Their parents and teachers have."

Speaking of capitalism, July 24 marked the 50th anniversary of the Kitchen Debate -- the famous interchange between Vice President Richard Nixon and Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev during the grand opening of the American National Exhibition in Moscow in 1959. During the latter part of 1958, in an attempt to bridge an ever-widening cultural divide, the two countries agreed to set up national exhibits in the other country.

The Soviet National Exhibition took place in New York City. The star attractions of the exhibit were replicas of a Sputnik satellite, a Soviet passenger jet, and a scaled-down model of a Soviet collective farm. Also featured were Russian music and folk dance, but Americans weren't too keen on those. In fact, the entire display was met with a disinterested shrug by the American people. Turnout was disappointing.

According to the This Day in History Web site for July 5, 1959, the Soviets left comment books scattered throughout the exhibit for Americans to jot down their impressions. Unfortunately, the average American viewing the exhibit had struggled through the Great Depression and World War II. He was working hard and reaping the benefits of a strong economy. Comments were not favorable.

The general impression of most was that the main achievement of the Russian exhibit was to make Americans even more thankful they had been born in the United States. Rather than cultivate an understanding between the two nations, the Soviet exhibit managed only to garner a dismissive contempt.

The American National Exhibition in Moscow, on the other hand, was a smashing success. Despite a scorching Moscow heat wave, from the day the gates opened on July 24, more than 2 million Russians, starving for contact with the outside world, thronged the exhibit. In what was for many a devastating emotional blow, Muscovites were treated to a high-tech display of what life was like for those who lived in the capitalist West. Russian citizens gawked openly at the exhibits of American culture, science, and technology. They toured a typical American kitchen, replete with dishwasher and washing machine.

Guidebooks promoted the kitchen as being a boon to the American housewife. The myriad appliances promised to make life easier and allow free time to engage in leisure activities, volunteer work, or even (gasp!) work at full-time employment.

The most memorable moment occurred when Nixon, sent to Russia by President Dwight D. Eisenhower to host the Soviet premier at the display, toured RCA Whirlpool's ultra-modern kitchen. As Nixon led Khrushchev through the exhibition, the Soviet leader grew noticeably angry.

He sneered at the gaudy display of technology, but proclaimed that within the next few years the Soviet Union would provide the same conveniences to its citizens. (The transcripts and even video clips of the short debate are widely available on the Internet).

The Soviets and other Eastern Bloc governments were convinced that, inevitably, the communist countries behind the Iron Curtain would experience a growth in economic strength far greater than that of Western nations. They believed that the limited consumption of goods by their repressed citizenry would leave more money available for investment -- which would result in rapid growth.

That never happened. Not a single communist country, not even the mighty Soviet Union with its massive military power, ever came near the economic prosperity of America or most of Western Europe.

Western dominance in the years following World War II was a result, primarily, of capitalism. The only economic system that is privately controlled, capitalism rewards both manager and laborer with profit and payoff. Khrushchev's son became an American citizen.

Even Karl Marx, who loathed the system, admitted that it was responsible for creating heretofore unheardof productivity. According to Marx, capitalism was "the first [economic system] to show what man's activity can bring about."

So while it may be fashionable for "spoiled snot-goblins" and others to bash capitalism -- and not only wish for, but work toward its hasty demise -- it would do them well to stop momentarily and remember the fates of those Iron Curtain economies. Else one day in the not-to-distant future, it may be we Americans who are standing in line gawking at the wealth of other nations.

Contact Robin Beres at (804) 649-6305 or .