Scope and Contents
Los Angeles Police Department. Chairman Khrushchev's Visit, September 19, 20, 1959. [Los Angeles], 1959. Original operational
handbook for internal use by LAPD personnel, detailing the extensive security plan for Nikita Khrushchev's 1959 visit to Los
Angeles. Includes several maps and plans, drawings of identification lapel pins, press passes, and vehicle identification
cards. Khrushchev's 13-day visit to the United States was the first State visit from a Soviet leader. In a radio address (the
transcript of which is included here), Police Chief William H. Parker told his officers "In defining the objective of the
mission at hand, we are charged with preventing interference and disorder while providing to the visiting party an optimum
of opportunity for the desired freedom of movement and activity." This handbook provides Khrushchev's tentative itinerary,
a list of operational responsibilities (e.g., airport security, hotel security, movie studio security, handling the press)
and the personnel in command of each. This is followed by details about the specific security duties assigned to the LAPD
(as opposed to the Sheriff's Department and various federal agencies), positions in which officers are to stand and cars are
to be parked at each stop on the itinerary. Assignments at the Ambassador Hotel included a "Geiger counter man" to "take a
reading of all food and personnel" and a fluoroscope operator to examine all gifts, packages, and mail designated for Khrushchev.
Additional officers were assigned to conduct security checks of all convoy vehicles, inspect all visited areas for explosives,
take photographs of "persons disturbing the peace, arrestees, placards. and other evidence" and more. The manual includes
maps of each post, marking entries and exists, paths of foot and vehicle traffic, etc.