A Comment from David E. Metzler

When Nikita Khrushchev visited Iowa in 1959 I was an associate professor of biochemistry at Iowa State University. My previous research had led me to collaboration with a well-known Russian biochemist and I had started to study Russian in preparation for a hoped-for visit to the Soviet Union in 1961. I was very much aware of Khrushchev and his efforts to promote peace. When I heard that he would stop at ISU on his way to Coon Rapids and would arrive in front of the chemistry building I was there bright and early. A substantial and friendly crowd was waiting. There were police, too. Soon some men in long dark overcoats with long rifles appeared and went to the rooftops of nearby buildings. There were no protestors, but three students in dark hats and long trench coats amused us by walking around on the grass nearby carrying violin cases. Then we heard the din of what seemed like every sheriff in central Iowa following Khrushchev's limousine with their sirens blaring. They all pulled up in front of me in a small parking lot. The sheriffs and other officers formed a circle around Khrushchev. He was so short I couldn't see him at all. A good many students jumped over the barricades and surrounded his car. It was somewhat amusing. The sheriff's made a solid ring around Krushchev and escorted him into the Home Economics building which he was visiting. When they came out later there was nobody protecting the car! I could see that Khrushchev was shaking hands with a crowd of students but there wasn't room for me to squeeze into the circle. I went home and watched Nina Petrovna and the children at the nearby ISU pig farm on television. Nina reached across the fence and shook hands and greeted as many people as possible.

This was the beginning of a lengthy and very interesting exchange program with scientists in the USSR. I received a travel grant to attend the International Congress of Biochemistry in Moscow in 1961. There I met some people with whom I would collaborate for many years. In 1965 I took my family to live in Moscow for more than five months to attend schools there while I participated in biochemical research in an institute of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. This was part of a very active exchange program between the U.S. and Soviet academies of science. The U.S. had a good staff at the embassy in Moscow. This fact facilitated our ability to visit many places and to interact with many Russians and citizens of other parts of the Soviet Union. While studying Russian in preparation for this visit I had made the acquaintance of Boris Runov, who was an exchange student in agricultural engineering at ISU. He later became a high minister of agriculture under Mikhail Gorbachev. This was a time when John Chrystal was making regular visits to Russia and I had opportunities to interact with both Chrystal and Runov. I think that the significance of Roswell Garst and John Crystal's friendship with Krushchev and later with Gorbachev were very important in overcoming tensions of the Cold War. I was happy to be able to play a small part in that successful effort. It was Roswell Garst who started it all.