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"What is it? Is there an epidemic of cholera there or something? Or have gangsters taken hold of the place that can destroy me? Then what must I do? Commit suicide? That is the situation I am in —your guest. For me the situation is inconceivable. I cannot find words to explain this to my people!"
Reflected Heat. The Khrushchevs were led off after lunch to watch the shooting of Can-Can. Their hosts: Frank Sinatra and Shirley MacLaine. Shirley had barely started the welcome speech she had learned in Russian before she became annoyed by the noises of the scene shifters. She said to them: "Could you do this later because this is awfully important to me?" And she said to Khrushchev & Co.: "I do hope you'll enjoy these parts of our picture Can-Can because we very much enjoy the Soviet artists you have sent to this country." After Frank introduced the song Live and Let Live, he said to Khrushchev: "It's a marvelous idea." And as he heard Frank talk, watched Shirley and the chorus girls upend, Khrushchev grinned. Going back over the Disneyland outburst, he said that the studio commissary had been hot, and he had been hotheaded, and he even apologized for his words. When Kim Novak was ushered up to him, Khrushchev said to Kim: "You realty wowed Mikoyan."
With Disneyland off limits, Khrushchev was driven behind police escort through shopping centers, housing developments, and the U.C.L.A. campus. Ambassador Lodge told Khrushchev that he could stop anywhere; Khrushchev, once again detached and dubious-looking, chose not to stop anywhere, hardly looked out of the windows of his closed car. That night at a civic dinner in the Ambassador Hotel, Khrushchev found himself once again beside Los Angeles' Mayor Norris Poulson. Poulson keynoted a speech in which he was supposed to be introducing Khrushchev to an echo of Patrick Henry. "You shall not bury us," he told Khrushchev, "and we shall not bury you. But, if challenged, we shall fight to the death to preserve it."
"This Favorite Horse." Khrushchev wound up his prepared text on California weather, disarmament, how Los Angeles smog resembled the cold war, then looked at Mayor Poulson. "I want to ask you," he said, "why did you mention that? Already in the U.S. I have clarified that. I trust that even mayors read." The crowd gave Khrushchev a laugh and a round of applause. "In our country," Khrushchev went on, "chairmen of councils who do not read the press risk not being re-elected." The crowd gave Khrushchev another big hand; two-time Mayor Poulson turned crimson. Then Khrushchev went on: "Ladies and gentlemen, you want to get up on this favorite horse of yours and proceed in the same old direction. If you want continuation of the arms race, then, very well, we accept that challenge. And as for the output of our rockets, those are on the assembly line.
"I am talking seriously because I have come here with serious intentions, and you try to reduce the matter to simply a joke. It is a question of war or peace between our countries, a question of the life or death of the people."