The 1945 meeting of the Big Three in Potsdam, Germany, just after the fall of the Third Reich, proved to be the last time Stalin would meet with Roosevelt. Once the war was over, Russia drew up their Iron Curtain, preferring to communicate with diplomatic third parties, acts propaganda, and declamations to international press organizations. Stalin’s successor was a little less strict, at least initially: Khrushchev came to power decrying Stalin’s excesses, and to prove his willingness to work with the West, he paid a visit to the United States.

On this day, September 15, in 1959, Soviet General Secretary Nikita Khruschev, the leader of the USSR, met American dignitaries and a scrum of reporters upon his landing in Washington, D.C.

Khruschev spent twelve days in the U.S., travelling from coast to coast and taking in the sights of the country. Among his stops were New York City, where he met Frank Sinatra and Shirley MacLaine on the set of Can-Can and Pittsburgh, where he toured a steel mill. While in New York, Khruschev also had a chance to visit IBM headquarters. He was not overly impressed with the computers, but reportedly did marvel at the self-service cafeteria on the grounds. Khrushchev instituted a similar model as soon as he got back home.