Did the Soviet leadership ever address the American people on American TV?

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Accepted answer

Leonid Brezhnev addressed the American public on radio and television the 24th of June, 1973. His speech can be read here and also here. There is a clip of the speech (seemingly wrongly dated 25th of June) on YouTube. He begins with:

I highly appreciate this opportunity of directly addressing the people of the United States on my visit to your country.

"SYND 25 6 73 LEONID BREZHNEV DELIVERS STATEMENT ON US TELEVISION". Source: AP archive

Interestingly, Voice of America (VOA) Russian-language broadcasts were being jammed at the time so Brezhnev's own words during the visit were being blocked by his own jammers until, that is, his speech on the 24th. For this event, the jamming stopped two minutes before the speech began and "remained off for the duration of the speech."


Earlier, at the end of the first state visit by a Soviet leader to the US, Nikita Khrushchev had addressed the American people in a television press conference on the 27th of September, 1959. His speech can be read here. The speech began with:

I am glad of this opportunity of talking to you before leaving for my country. We liked your beautiful cities and fine roads, but most of all your amiable, kind-hearted people. And let these words of mine not be taken as the guest's customary tribute of courtesy and respect to his host

There's an audio recording of this speech here, but some of it is a statement read out by a Soviet official. However, Khrushchev's voice can be heard introducing the speech and at other points, usually with the translator talking over it.

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