How did nikita khrushchev surprise US leaders?

in 1956, three years after Stalin died, party secretary khruschev gave a secret speech to the assembled communist party congress that condemned Stalin for being a tyrant. though it was secret, news did leak out, leading many to think that a period of reform was brewing. in Hungary, reformists took the lead and staged the beginnings of a revolution. soviet policy, however, had not changed that much and the revolution was crushed.