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On his arrival in Manhattan, Khrushchev greeted the American "toilers, who create the wealth of society." But he had pointedly accepted invitations to talk with business leaders. After a civic luncheon—where the audience surprised itself by joining the band in a roaring, spontaneous rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner—Khrushchev was whisked to the town house of Multimillionaire W. Averell Harriman. There Host Harriman, who had visited Khrushchev in Moscow, introduced him to 27 top U.S. industrialists, financiers and educators, told Khrushchev bluntly that here was his chance to sample the views of those held by Communists to be "the ruling circles." As Khrushchev sank back in a big chair, the U.S. businessmen—notably Chase Manhattan Bank Chairman John McCloy, General Dynamics Chairman Frank Pace and RCA Chairman David Sarnoff—assured him that they wanted nothing more than to give up profits from national defense contracts to concentrate on the growing civilian economy. They agreed afterward that they had not made a visible dent in Khrushchev's understanding of capitalism. To argue capitalism v. Communism ideology, said Khrushchev, was like "the deaf talking to the deaf."
"An Old Sparrow." U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Henry Cabot Lodge, serving as Khrushchev's escort, tried again that night at an Economic Club of New York dinner at the Waldorf. During Lodge's exposition of U.S. capitalism as "economic humanism" (see box), Khrushchev interrupted: "Only the grave can correct a hunchback!" And in his long, prepared speech, Khrushchev dangled the prospect of big profits before the businessmen if the U.S. would abandon its "obstinacy" and lift strategic trade restrictions. He got tangled up in language difficulties, lost his temper when he mistook grumbling over his long-windedness for derision of his own ideas. Khrushchev hurled back a proverb—"He who wants to have eggs must put up with the hens' cackle"—and then erupted during the question period with a line that discreet Translator Troyanovsky did not render into English: "You think you've got me lying on my back with my hands and feet in the air!" In the short-lived hubbub, Khrushchev fell back on his native Russian pride. "Gentlemen," he said, "I am an old sparrow. You cannot muddle me by your cries. If there is no desire to listen to what I have to say, I can go. I come here not to beg but as a representative of a great people." But at dinner's end he had his temper under control, exited smiling, singing out "Do svidaniya [Goodbye]."
"I Have No Power." Khrushchev got a late start next morning. As a result his party rolled away from the Waldorf for a 75-85-m.p.h., 100-mile motor run through the green hills and trim white farms of the Hudson River Valley country to lay a wreath on the Franklin D. Roosevelt grave at Hyde Park. There, Khrushchev said simply and routinely: "We came to pay homage to the memory of Roosevelt."