Foy D. Kohler; U.S. Envoy to Moscow at Peak of Cold War

Foy David Kohler, a career diplomat and the U.S. ambassador to Moscow during the height of the Cold War, has died at 82.

Kohler, who was present for the 1959 “kitchen debate” between Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and then-Vice President Richard Nixon, died Sunday at Jupiter Hospital. His home was in Juno Beach.

“His loss is a great loss,” said former Secretary of State Dean Rusk. “Foy Kohler was one of our greatest professional diplomats. He was a lifelong member of the foreign service. He served with great distinction.”

Kohler was ambassador to the Soviet Union from August, 1962, to November, 1966.

He was considered a member of the realist school of international politics, which emphasized the importance of military, economic and political power in world affairs.

Kohler took his first post as vice consul in Windsor, Canada, in 1931. Later assignments took him to Romania, Yugoslavia, Greece, Egypt, Great Britain and Turkey. He also toured Vietnam, Pakistan and Bolivia on fact-finding missions for U.S. aid programs, and he served as director of the Voice of America.

Kohler first went to Moscow in January, 1947, as first secretary of the U.S. Embassy. He was there when Khrushchev and Nixon toured a model American kitchen during a 1959 American exposition in Moscow. Khrushchev became angry, and the “kitchen debate” between him and Nixon drew international attention.

President John F. Kennedy tapped the Russian-speaking diplomat--then assistant secretary of state for European affairs--to become ambassador to the Soviet Union in 1962.

Shortly after he arrived in Moscow in his new post, the Cuban missile crisis erupted and brought the world to the brink of war.

Nonetheless, Kohler respected Khrushchev.

“You couldn’t help but like him just as an individual,” he once said. “He was a shrewd peasant and he loved to trade repartee. He had a quick wit. It’s true that Khrushchev--especially with his de-Stalinization speech--shook up the society and greatly eased the terror that had prevailed under Stalin. On the other hand, Khrushchev was a true believer in Bolshevism.”

After leaving Moscow, Kohler was undersecretary of state for political affairs for a year.

He retired in 1967 and then spent almost 11 years as a professor at the University of Miami’s graduate center for advanced international studies.

The hospital said Tuesday that Kohler died after a long illness but did not release details.

He is survived by his wife, Phyllis. Funeral arrangements were pending.