Khrushchev was willing to do almost anything to feed the people of the Soviet Union after decades of starvation under Joseph Stalin. So he turned West. And by the end, millions would die. You’ll never believe what happens next. In 1959, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev toured the United States hoping to study why American agriculture was so productive. What he kept seeing everywhere was corn. Endless fields across the Midwest, towering silos, cattle being fattened on it, entire rural economies bu