Events Mark Khrushchev's 1959 Iowa Visit

Roswell Garst tosses cornhusks at newsmen crowding around July 17,1959 as he accompanies his guest Nikita Khrushchev, right, and other visitors about his farm at Coon Rapids,Iowa. Garst's efforts to ease hunger in Communist countries began in 1955, when he first went behind the Iron Curtain to preach his own gospel of revolution --in agricultural methods --and to pioneer a policy of detente between the U.S. and Soviet Union. (AP Photo/Stringer)

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By Aaron Hepker

Story Created: Aug 23, 2009 at 1:03 PM CST

Story Updated: Aug 23, 2009 at 1:03 PM CST

IOWA CITY (AP) - Iowa briefly became the warmest spot in the Cold War 50 years ago, when a farmer from Coon Rapids and the leader of the Soviet Union talked corn and farm equipment.

Iowans and Russians will mark the anniversary of that visit in 1959 with speeches at Drake University on Thursday followed by three days of events, including a conference and banquet.

Participants will look back at Soviet Union Premier Nikita Khrushchev's two-day stay in Iowa during a 13-day journey through the United States that included time in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Camp David.

A conference on "Feeding a Hungry World" will begin Friday afternoon at the Hotel Fort Des Moines, and a public banquet will include the same menu served to Khrushchev in 1959.

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