Khrushchev's 1959 trip across America was one of the strangest exercises in
international diplomacy ever conducted - «a surreal extravaganza,» as historian John Lewis Gaddis called it.
Then occurred one of the most remarkable sounds that has perhaps
ever been heard in the annals of
international diplomacy — like a collective global groan — descending then to a murmer, then increasing in volume to a full - throated expression of rage and anger and booing and jeering, lasting for a full minute, so that finally the Minister had to call the meeting back to order.