1.25" to 1.75x2.75". Both cards have text "Visit Of The Chairman Of The Council Of Ministers Of The USSR Nikita S. Khrushchev To The United States Of America" and are in clear plastic holders w/bar pin on reverse. Included are card w/additional text "Washington Only" at top and issued to "Louis C. Hiener, Jr. Indianapolis News"; card w/additional text "September 1959 Press" issued to "Bill Bridges Time Magazine LA" and a cello button featuring cartoon floating head portraits and text "September 1959 The Visit." Cards have minor age toning, VF. Button has only trivial wear. NM. All three of these historic and rare Cold War artifacts are the first we've offered in our 53 years. See expanded description online. John Pendergrass Collection.

Artifacts from the Cold War visit of Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev who spent two days in September 1959 meeting w/President Eisenhower at Camp David in Maryland to talk about easing tensions centered around Berlin. When the two days of meeting seemed to be at an impasse Ike, suspecting Khrushchev shared a similar sentimentality, invited the Soviet leader to his farm in Gettysburg, PA calling ahead to make sure that his three grandchildren could be on the porch to greet the arriving leaders. The gambit worked Khrushchev agreed to remove his ultimatum for the US to exit Berlin and a joint statement including the line "The Question Of General Disarmament Is The Most Important One Facing The World Today" was issued at the conclusion. The victory would be temporary as tensions escalated again in May of 1960 when the Soviet's shot down a U2 spy plane and captured its American pilot.