Van Cliburn made a difference in Cold War politics. If the Soviet people thought that all Americans were hostile toward them, they would have considered all Americans as enemies. However, because the Soviets saw that Van Cliburn respected them and their culture, they formed a better opinion of the American people. Van Cliburn may not have ended the Cold War, but he helped build the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union.
The American pianist Harvey Lavan Cliburn, in the middle of the Cold War won the international Chaikovsky piano competition in Moscow and his music transcends decades of east-west clashes. Fame came to Cliburn in 1958 when he took first place in the first international Chaikovsky piano competition in Moscow, which made him a genuine winner in the midst of ideological tensions and threats between the USSR and the United States. Although Clibum, I do not take part in the Cold War, if we can affirm that His virtuous interpretation of the symphonies of Chaikovsky and Rafmaninov prevented the Kremlin authorities from ideologically using the contest.
