On Nikita Khrushchev's desk was an ear of American corn, sent him by a U.S. seed company. On the nearby boardroom-type table were two bottles of mineral water: one from the North Caucasus, one from the South Caucasus. Khrushchev, wearing two Orders of Lenin medals on the left lapel of his dark suit jacket, waved his visitor to a chair at the table, took another for himself. "What," he asked, "would you like to discuss?" Replied Minnesota's endlessly ebullient, hardheadedly liberal Democratic Senator Hubert Humphrey: "Many things." And for 83-hours last week Nikita Khrushchev and Hubert Humphrey indeed discussed many things: it was the longest, perhaps the most revealing and certainly the most fascinating audience ever given by a Soviet Premier to a U.S. citizen.

Minnesota's Humphrey and his wife Muriel, touring Europe, had gone to Moscow almost as an afterthought. But once there, Humphrey decided "to ask for everything and see what I got." Said he to the Intourist guide who took him in tow: "I want to see the Minister of Health and the Minister of Education." The Intourist man looked gravely doubtful. Continued Humphrey: "I want to appear on your television." The guide prepared to leave. Concluded Humphrey: "And I want to see Mr. Khrushchev." The guide was gone.

Humphrey worked his way through a score of Soviet ministers, deputy ministers and lesser bureaucrats. He appeared live on Moscow television for ten minutes ("We want to know you and we want you to know us and visit us."), taped a 25-minute program for radio; he wrote a signed article for Izvestia on the U.S. desire for peace, interlarding it with statistics calculated to show the contrast between U.S. and Russian life ("three quarters of our families own their own homes and their own automobiles, which war would all destroy"). And one afternoon, checking in with the Soviet Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Nations, he was told: "No need to take off your coat." Why not? The reply: "You are to be received by the First Minister at the Kremlin." It was then 2:30. By 3 o'clock, Humphrey and Khrushchev were deep in talk.

Strings or Noose? It began with Humphrey, who has few peers as an articulate, extended conversationalist, spending more than an hour in enthusiastic explanation of a pet project: an International Health Year, comparable to the current International Geophysical Year, for expanded exchanges of information in medical research fields. Khrushchev, Humphrey said later, responded warmly.

The talk turned to East-West trade, with Khrushchev blandly insisting that the Soviet Union does not use trade as a political weapon. A few nights before, when a second-string Russian bureaucrat denied that the Russians attach strings to their trade offers, Humphrey retorted: Why, I've just come from a country [Finland] where [trade] not only has strings; it's a political noose." Humphrey asked Khrushchev for specific facts began pressing his own statistics on Khrushchev, who shrugged: "I am not expert and there are details I am not familiar with. He promised to bring in Trade Expert Anastas Mikoyan later.

Subtle & Clever. Across the length and breadth of big and little problems ranged the conversation. Politician Humphrey talked about the perils of farm politics in the Midwest; Politician Khrushchev grinned widely when he talked about outmaneuvering his rivals in the Politburo said of one of them (unnamed by Humphrey): "He knew arithmetic but he didn't know politics." Humphrey was deeply impressed with Khrushchev's knowledge of U.S. political details ranging from understanding of constitutional balances down to vote margins and knowledge of such individual races as the victory of Nelson Rockefeller for Governor in New York and the defeat of Bill Knowland in California. They chatted about Khrushchev's health, and he owned up to having some kidney trouble "Khrushchev began telling me about capitalism and how he began as a worker. I told him a great many people in our country started at the bottom, and on this and on capitalism I told him he just didn't know what he was talking about."

Humphrey asked about anti-Semitism in Russia. "Why," said Khrushchev "my own son married a Jewess." Khrushchev boasted about his full mobilization seven-year roadbuilding plan: "Even a philosopher becomes a better philosopher if he goes out and works with his hands." Humphrey brought up the touchy subject of Russian relations with Red China. "Ah " said Nikita Khrushchev, "you are subtle and clever, leading me into talking about these things." But he talked at length said he was not worried about Red China left Humphrey with the impression that he feels superior about the Chinese. Humphrey got the idea that Khrushchev still wants a Summit conference.

Most topical of all, Humphrey and Khrushchev discussed Soviet intentions in Berlin, and Humphrey was convinced that Khrushchev means business--up to a point: "I don't think he's going to back down, but I believe he's left a slight loophole or two--a slight escape hatch." Humphrey "hammered it in" that Americans regardless of political party affiliation, support President Eisenhower in his determination to stand fast in Berlin.

We re not going to get run out of the ballpark, ' said Democrat Humphrey. "In fact somebody else might get run out."

Smart, Strong & Tough." At 4:30 and again at 5:30, Humphrey made motions toward leaving, but each time Khrushchev waved him back to his chair. At 7, dinner (beef, ham, wild fowl, etc.) was brought in, topped by a toast in Armenian brandy. At dinner's end, Humphrey made a forthright suggestion. "I agree," said Nikita Khrushchev, and the two tromped oft to a Kremlin lavatory, were soon back at the conference table. At 9, Anastas Mikoyan dropped by, and the talk returned to trade. At 9:30 it occurred to Humphrey that his wife might be worried about him; a Kremlin aide called her at the National Hotel. And finally, at 11:30 the marathon interview came to an end. ' In London, before flying back to the U.S. last weekend, Hubert Humphrey was cautious about disclosing all the details of his talk with Khrushchev. He planned to report personally both to President Eisenhower and to Secretary of State Dulles--and to carry a direct message from Khrushchev to Ike. He had been impressed by Khrushchev: "This man is tough. Smart strong and tough."

He was impressed too by the U.S.S.R : These people are looking ahead. Everything that's happened up to now doesn't matter. It's now and next month and next year for them. They don't give a damn tor example, for Konrad Adenauer. He's an old man, and they're thinking right now about the people who are going to run Germany after him. They're out there in Indo-Chma and India and Ghana working at real diplomacy while we still mess around in the old Florentine way."

But was Humphrey, in view of his experiences, worried about the free world future? Said Hubert Humphrey: "Hell no."

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