Description
• Not seen in full since its original broadcast
• One of the most controversial interviews conducted by David Susskind. Susskind's office was deluged with telephone calls, telegrams, and hate mail from people who called him a "dirty red" and far worse
• When the airing was announced, "Disgusting!" was the headline on the New York Daily Mirror editorial denouncing the interview
• Recorded just after Khrushchev was in New York for a meeting of the United Nations Security Council after the U-2 spy plane incident
In October 1960, Eisenhower was President and the election that put John F. Kennedy into the White House was less than a month away. The Cold War was at its zenith. Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet Premier was visiting the United Nations headquarters in New York City. No Soviet leader had ever been interviewed by an American, yet Khrushchev agreed to appear live on David Susskind's 'Open End'. There was an immediate negative reaction to the announcement, even causing then F.B.I. director Hoover to ask "What do our files show on Susskind?"
The program aired live on Sunday, October 9 on New York television station WNTA. The two-hour conversation (through an interpreter) was very spirited and focused on two main topics: First, the virtues of Soviet styled communism versus American style capitalism, and second, would Khrushched give his assurance that he would never initiate a nuclear war.
The show is followed by an extensive panel discussion that included:
Dean Edward Barrett of Columbia School of Journalism
Henry Shapiro, James Wechsler, Max Lerner of New York Post,
Marguerite Higgins & Joe Newman of New York Herald Tribune
Eugene Lyons of Reader's Digest
Blair Fraser of Mclean's Magazine
CBC Harry Schwartz of New York Times
Frank Kanif of Hearst Newspapers
…and many more.
