A Kremlin Greeting
Nikita Khruschev was leader of the Soviet Union from 1955 until 1964. Serving as premier during the height of the Cold War, his leadership was marked by a series of high-profile international crises. There was the shooting down of an American U2 spy-plane over the Soviet Union in 1960, the building of the notorious Berlin Wall in 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, which brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.
Notorious for his eccentric outbursts, he once pulled off his right shoe and banged it on the desk at arguably one of the stormiest sessions to ever take place at the United Nations.
Here, journalist David Horowitz, who had interviewed and written about countless world leaders, greets Soviet leader Khruschev at the UN just before he entered the General Assembly in 1960, when the infamous shoe-banging incident took place.
Ralph Buntyn is executive vice president and associate editor of United Israel World Union. A historian and researcher, his many articles and essays have appeared in various media outlets.