Khrushchev understood that the Soviet Union, despite its rapid advancement under communism, lacked the resources and the systems to compete militarily against the United States in a nuclear arms race. Consequently, he pressed the West to adopt a stance of "peaceful coexistence." For his part, Khrushchev dropped the Marxist-Leninist rhetoric that war between capitalism and socialism was inevitable. Instead, he challenged the West to allow communism to develop, with the promise that, in fifty years, whoever was ahead economically and socially would get to teach the other its ways. The West responded cautiously to Khrushchev's overtures, and in 1959 the United States even allowed him to make a state visit. During this trip he visited Iowa, where he got the idea to raise corn on the virgin lands. Ironically, Khrushchev's success at pushing peaceful coexistence was nullified by two major Soviet technological advances. The...