‘Confused and inconsistent.’ How accurate is this assessment of Khrushchev’s foreign policy?

Khrushchev's foreign policy throughout his rule is often characterised as “inconsistent” by many historians. Despite outwardly appearing as if he wanted to achieve peaceful relations with the U.S and the West in general, several of Khrushchev’s actions directly contradict this.

"There are only two ways- either Peaceful Coexistence or the most destructive war in History. There is no third way." - Khrushchev

After the death of Joseph Stalin, Nikita Khrushchev took over in control of the USSR. Khrushchev made multiple efforts to appear to work towards a serious “peaceful co-existence.” Though many of the events which took place during Khrushchev’s leadership brought the world closer to another major war than ever before, Soviet domestic and foreign policy during this time is often regarded as a “thaw” in Cold War tension. From this we can gather that his foreign policy was in fact successful. Not only did he manage to avoid nuclear warfare with the U.S, but he also gave a speech in 1956 where he formally announced a new policy of “destalinisation” - political prisoners were set free, Beria (Stalin’s Chief of Secret Police) was executed, giving up bases in Finland, abandoning vetoing admission of new countries to the UN, allowing greater freedom to satellite states and re conciliating with Tito in 1955. In 1961 Khrushchev declared that the period of 'the dictatorship of the proletariat' was at an end, and that he would bring in instead: 'the state of the whole people'. The rest of the world initially saw this is a huge change from what Stalin had attempted before and thought that it would lead to an entirely different style of leadership. Khrushchev believed the Soviets could match the living standards of that of the West and one of his key policies in order to