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The 1950's
 The Kitchen Debate

The Kitchen Debate
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   grades 6 to 8
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   7.76

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    nuclear, economic, military, particularly, reality, during, extremely, successful, entire, opening, debate, steered, government, trust, vocal, leader
     content words:    United States, Soviet Union, Vice President Richard Nixon, American National Exhibition, Vice President Nixon, Soviet Premier, Nikita Krushchev, President Nixon, Department Store, New York City

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The Kitchen Debate
By Jane Runyon 		  
1     During the late 1950's, the United States was engaged in a war. This was not a shooting war. The newspapers called it a "cold war." The United States and the Soviet Union were fighting each other with words and threats. Both countries wanted to be looked upon as world powers. Both countries had nuclear weapons. Neither country wanted to admit that the other was stronger.
 
2     The Soviet Union and the United States disagreed on almost everything. The Soviet Union was particularly vocal about the way Americans lived. The Soviet Union was a Communist country. To put it simply, they didn't think there should be any extremely rich people. Nor did they think there should be extremely poor people. The government managed the businesses and decided on what salaries to pay. They believed that there should be just one class of citizens.
 
3     In America, the people were able to work at many different economic levels. The government did not dictate how businesses were run. The salaries were set by the business owners and labor unions.

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