Ahmadinejad, Khrushchev, and Hu Jintao
Posted by Matt Zeitlin on September 26, 2007
Rick Perlstein has written a great description of Krushchev’s state visit to the US in 1959. In short, there wasn’t this bizarre feeling of trepidation. Instead, he got to go to LA, have a white tie dinner with the President Eisenhower, recieved a 21 gun salute, hung out with the CIA, talked to a bunch of business leaders, went to the National Press Club and a whole host of treats that we probably wouldn’t even dole out to Tony Blair these days. What gives?
Ezra diagnoses the problem as being massive American insecurity due to not being popular in the world anymore — so we now fear tinpot dictators instead of trying to impress them. But the comparison between Ahmadinejad and Khruschev isn’t very instructive, because Ahmadinejad isn’t even the head of a state middling regional power. Khruschev, on the other hand, was in charge of the world’s other super power and thus deserved the attention of the American government for his UN visit.
The more instructive comparison would he Hu Jintao’s visit in April of 2006. As Dana Milbank recounted, Hu Jintao got a similar reception to Khrushchev:
He got the 21-gun salute, the review of the troops and the Colonial fife-and-drum corps. He got the exchange of toasts and a meal of wild-caught Alaskan halibut with mushroom essence, $50 chardonnay and live bluegrass music. And he got an Oval Office photo op with President Bush, who nodded and smiled as if he understood Chinese while Hu spoke.
Of course, even during that visit, the White House called China the “Republic of China” which is Taiwan’s official name, allowed a Falun Gong journalist to heckle Hu for three minutes and Dick Cheney wearing sunglasses for a ceremony (apparently that isn’t cool in China). The real issue was not giving Hu Jintao a state dinner, and instead a “luncheon”. That could probably be chalked up to Bush’s distaste for such events, but the comparison is still there. In the 50s, with Khrushchev, it didn’t matter if the President didn’t like state dinners, when the leader of the second most important country in the world came over for a visit, that’s just what you did. And you didn’t freak out when someone like Ahmadinejad soiled your shores.
September 26, 2007 at 12:00 pm
Hello dear friend. I am a Persian citizen and it is the first time that I visited your blog. As I invite you to take a visit of my blog, let’s inofrm you about a doubtless reality. Ahmadinejad is not the symbol of Iran as Bush is not the symbol of US. do you want the global opinions know your country and call it with Bush, the great terrorist who sent more than 200,000 militants to Iraq and killed the Iraqi people? It is the same for Iran. Maybe Ahmadinejad is the president now, but he is not the symbol of Iran… beleive this. Pasargadae, Persepolis and Cyrus the great are Iranian symbols, if you beleive.
September 26, 2007 at 4:27 pm
your point about Ahmadinejad being the head of state doesn’t make sense. There are a lot of head’s of government who come visit us, and they get the whole shebang.
September 27, 2007 at 12:44 am
China lacks hard power and America no longer shares the #1 spot. It’s the sole #1 in the world. Of course that is rapidly changing. Given time, and China’s ascension, you can be assured that regardless of what kind of country China becomes, it will get all the nominal respects.