POSTWAR LIFE AND CULTURE
THE KITCHEN DEBATE:
UNDERSTANDING THE CULTURE OF THE COLD WAR
This module takes the famous 1959 exchange between Richard Nixon and Nikita
Khrushchev in Moscow known as the Kitchen Debate as a telling moment in the
Cold War. The module presents three themes referenced in the debate—the
atomic age, consumerism and the American home, and the Cold War in
American culture—and explores each in greater depth. The module uses
photographs and documents from the debate and extensive visual imagery and
primary sources from the era.
READINGS:
 Dwight D. Eisenhower, “Message for the American National
Exhibition” (July 24, 1959)
 Leonard Feather, on jazz as a Cold War weapon (1952)
 Betty Friedan, on gender myths of the Cold War (1963)
 Nikita Khrushchev, Speech at American National Exhibition (July 24,
1959)
 Mirra Komarovsky, Excerpt from The Overworked Mother (1953)
 Christopher La Farge, on the problem of Mickey Spillane’s fiction
(1957)
 Newton N. Minow, “The Vast Wasteland” speech (1961)
 Richard M. Nixon, Speech at the American National Exhibition (July
24, 1959)
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Transcript of the Kitchen Debate (July 24, 1959)
Excerpts from “Red Channels,” an anticommunist blacklist (1950)
Donald Robinson, “If H-Bombs Fall...” (1957)
Mickey Spillane, A Communist meets his demise (Excerpt from One
Lonely Night, 1951)
Excerpt from The Other America (Michael Harrington, 1962)
SECTION QUESTIONS
 Settings
1. What was on display at the 1959 American National Exhibition in
Moscow? Identify three aspects of the exhibit and how they
represented the United States.
2. Compare and contrast the photograph of Nixon and Khrushchev in
front of Fuller’s geodesic dome and the photograph of the two
leaders at the model kitchen. Consider, for example, how the
composition, tone, and content of the images suggest different ways
to interpret diplomacy, nationalism, and the role of gender.
3. In what ways do you think the Cold War was being waged at the
American National Exhibition? What aspects of the Cold War are
not addressed?
4. After reading the transcript from The New York Times, consider
what made the Kitchen Debate a significant event in 1959. What do
you think makes it historically resonant for understanding the Cold
War in retrospect?
 Atomic Age
1. Consider Nixon’s, Khrushchev’s, and Eisenhower’s speeches
delivered at the American National Exhibition. Is it possible to
reconcile their expressed hopes for peace with the evidence of the
escalating nuclear threat?
2. Federal civil defense administrator Katherine Graham Howard said,
“It may seem a little difficult to equate hot stoves with the cold war
but…hot stoves are part of Civil Defense.” Assess Howard’s claim.
How was the role of housekeeping and other domestic tasks like
cooking connected to civil defense measures?
3. What were the role and purpose of Nixon’s and Khrushchev’s
references to the nuclear threat during the Kitchen Debate?
4. Do you think that civil defense measures were effective ways to
address the nuclear threat? What is your response today?
 The Home
1. How did Nixon promote democracy and capitalism in the United
States by commenting on consumer goods and the modern home?
How would you characterize Khrushchev’s response to Nixon’s
remarks?
2. Interpret some of the ways that promotional plans for ranch homes,
advertisements for kitchen appliances, views of Levittown, and
Postwar Life and Culture
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images of abundant commodities for families show the significance
of the new suburbs. What are some connections between these
images and the rhetoric of the Cold War?
3. Nixon promoted women’s roles as mothers and homemakers at the
American National Exhibition. How do you assess this emphasis for
women during the Cold War? What was enabling about this
emphasis? Limiting?
4. Some historians have argued that television became an “electronic
hearth” during the 1950s. In what ways do images of television and
its placement in the home reflect this view? Can you offer an
alternative interpretation?
Culture
1. After having read the excerpt from Mickey Spillane’s detective
novel, One Lonely Night, in what ways would you say that it
indicates how anticommunism became part of the cultural
imagination during the Cold War? Why would critics such as
Christopher La Farge see such motifs as part of a dangerous trend?
2. Some historians have argued that the Red Scare was a lamentable
but uncharacteristically extreme response to a perceived threat to the
United States. Do you agree? Was the pamphlet Red Channels an
extremist document or was it part of a larger network of
anticommunist beliefs? Explain your answer.
3. What were some of the aspects of jazz that were so appealing for
Cold War propaganda? What elements of jazz challenged its
assumptions and emphases?
4. Anticommunism was a key element of cultural dynamics during the
Cold War. How were various cultural media politicized during the
Cold War? Compare and contrast ways that cultural figures—an
entertainer, for example, or even a protagonist in a novel—were
proponents of anticommunism or victimized by it.
MODULE LEVEL QUESTIONS
1. The American National Exhibition, where the Kitchen Debate took
place, demonstrated American culture and products to Soviet
citizens. How so?
2. At the time of the Kitchen Debate in 1959, the nuclear arms race
between the United States and the Soviet Union was escalating.
Identify two aspects of this escalation.
3. The American home, according to historians, was often discussed as
a symbol of freedom and democracy during the Cold War. Name
and discuss an example of this link in the Kitchen Debate and its
broader significance.
4. How were women and ideas about women’s roles represented and
discussed at the Kitchen Debate? How was this role reflected more
widely in American culture?
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5. Establish and explain a connection between the civil defense
movement and ideas about the home during the Cold War.
6. Define the Red Scare and identify two ways that communism was
represented in American culture.