Soviet Union–United States summits were held from 1943 to 1991. The topics discussed at the summits between the president of the United States and either the general secretary or the premier of the Soviet Union ranged from fighting the Axis Powers during World War II to arms control between the two superpowers themselves during the Cold War.[1]
Date | Place | Country | President of the United States | General Secretary or Premier of the Soviet Union | Notes |
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November 28–December 1, 1943 | Tehran | Iran [2] | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Joseph Stalin | Held at the Soviet Embassy in Tehran. Also in attendance Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom. Ended with the Western Allies committing themselves to open a second front against Nazi Germany through the planned amphibious invasion of Normandy. They also agreed to provide full support to the Yugoslav Partisans over the Chetniks. In return, the Soviet Union agreed to support the creation of the United Nations after the war and eventually enter the Allied campaign against Japan. They also agreed to divide Germany into occupation zones and recognize Iran as an independent state after the war. |
February 4–11, 1945 | Yalta | Soviet Union[2] | Held at the Livadia Palace. Also in attendance Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the United Kingdom. First visit by a United States President to the Soviet Union.[3] Produced declaration calling for the formation of democratic institutions in Europe after the war while dividing Germany and Berlin into American, British, French, and Soviet zones of occupation. Imposed reparations, denazification, and demilitarization on postwar Germany. Obtained Western recognition of Soviet puppet government in Poland. Obtained Soviet commitment to enter the United Nations in exchange for allowing all 16 Soviet Socialist Republics membership. Mandated trials for Nazi war criminals after the war. |
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July 17–August 2, 1945 | Potsdam | Allied-occupied Germany[4] | Harry S. Truman | Held at the Cecilienhof Palace. Also in attendance Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and Clement Attlee of the United Kingdom, with a switch caused by the Labour Party's victory in the 1945 general election. Planned for the postwar order and terms of peace treaties after World War II. Mandated complete abolition of Nazi political institutions and laws in Germany, initiated democratization reforms, and planned dismantlement of industry. Set the Oder-Neisse line as the western border of Poland and Germany. Allowed expulsions of ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe. Created conditions which allowed the Soviet Union to establish satellite states in Eastern Europe after the war. |
Date | Place | Country | President of the United States | General Secretary or Premier of the Soviet Union | Notes |
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July 18–23, 1955 | Geneva | Switzerland[5] | Dwight D. Eisenhower | Nikita Khrushchev and Nikolai Bulganin | Also in attendance Prime Minister Anthony Eden of the United Kingdom and Prime Minister Edgar Faure of France. First Four-Power conference since World War II. It was intended to reduce rising international tensions during the Cold War, and included discussions of trade policy, the nuclear arms race, and disarmament. Failed to achieve settlement on German reunification due to Western refusal to withdraw West Germany from NATO. |
September 15 and 27, 1959 | Washington, D.C., and Camp David | United States[6][7] | Nikita Khrushchev | First visit by a Soviet leader to the United States. |
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May 16–17, 1960 | Paris | France[5] | Also in attendance Prime Minister Harold Macmillan of the United Kingdom and President Charles de Gaulle of France. Khrushchev left the summit due to the dispute over the 1960 U-2 incident. | ||
June 3–4, 1961 | Vienna | Austria[8] | John F. Kennedy | Convened after the botched Bay of Pigs invasion and the Berlin Crisis. Achieved a settlement on the Laotian Civil War but failed to achieve final settlement regarding the status of Berlin. The breakdown of the conference contributed to a more hardline American stance towards the Soviet Union. |
Date | Place | Country | President of the United States | General Secretary or Premier of the Soviet Union | Notes |
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June 23 and 25, 1967 | Glassboro | United States[6] | Lyndon B. Johnson | Alexei Kosygin | Held at Hollybush Mansion in Glassboro State College. Convened due to the intensifying Vietnam War and the Six-Day War. Failed to reach concrete agreements but resulted in improved Soviet Union–United States relations and the period of détente |
May 22–30, 1972 | Moscow | Soviet Union[9] | Richard Nixon | Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin | First visit by an American head of state to the Soviet Union since World War II. Held at the Kremlin Palace. Signing of the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I), and the U.S.–Soviet Incidents at Sea Agreement. The treaties limited strategic nuclear weapons and specifically anti-ballistic missiles |
June 18–25, 1973 | Washington, D.C. | United States[6] | Signing of the Agreement on the Prevention of Nuclear War at the White House. |
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June 28–July 3, 1974 | Moscow | Soviet Union[9] | Leonid Brezhnev | Ended in the signing of the Threshold Test Ban Treaty limiting nuclear weapons tests. |
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November 23–24, 1974 | Vladivostok | Soviet Union[10] | Gerald Ford | Held at the Okenskaya Sanitorium. Ended in agreement establishing parity for strategic nuclear delivery vehicles, including intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles with multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles |
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July 30 and August 2, 1975 | Helsinki | Finland[10] | Final phase of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe. Established the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and the Moscow Helsinki Group. Included commitments from the United States, the Soviet Union, and most of Europe to support their territorial integrity |
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June 15–18, 1979 | Vienna | Austria[11] | Jimmy Carter | Signing of the second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT II) at the Hofburg Palace. |
Date | Place | Country | President of the United States | General Secretary or Premier of the Soviet Union | Notes |
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November 19–21, 1985 | Geneva | Switzerland[12] | Ronald Reagan | Mikhail Gorbachev | First international summit between American and Soviet heads of state since the end of détente. Failed to produce agreements due to the American refusal to abandon the Strategic Defense Initiative but ended in improved American-Soviet relations. |
October 11–12, 1986 | Reykjavík | Iceland[12] | Held at Höfði House. Nearly achieved agreement on bilateral nuclear disarmament but suddenly collapsed due to the American refusal to abolish the SDI. Nevertheless resulted in major diplomatic gains between the United States and the Soviet Union |
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December 8–10, 1987 | Washington, D.C. | United States[6] | Ended in the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty limiting short-range and intermediate-range ballistic missiles. Also included discussions on conventional and chemical weapons; human rights; and proxy conflicts in the Third World. |
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May 29–June 3, 1988 | Moscow | Soviet Union[12] | Held in the Kremlin Palace. Continued negotiations on topics from the Washington Summit and produced a joint statement on arms control. |
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December 7, 1988 | New York City | United States[6] | Held on Governors Island. Also in attendance President-elect George H. W. Bush. Gorbachev left the summit early due to the 1988 Spitak earthquake which struck the Armenian S.S.R. that same day. |
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December 2–3, 1989 | Valletta | Malta[13] | George H. W. Bush | Conference convened several weeks after the Monday demonstrations and the fall of the Berlin Wall ending Marxist-Leninist rule in East Germany. Held aboard the Soviet cruise ship SS Maxim Gorkiy. Conference ended with a symbolic declaration that the Cold War had ended. |
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May 30–June 3, 1990 | Washington, D.C. | United States[6] | Signing of the 1990 Chemical Weapons Accord. |
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September 9, 1990 | Helsinki | Finland[13] | Discussed the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and German reunification.[14] |
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November 19, 1990 | Paris | France [13] | Signing of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. | ||
July 17, 1991 | London | United Kingdom[13] | Held in conjunction with the 17th G7 Summit. | ||
July 30–31, 1991 | Moscow | Soviet Union[13] | Signing of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I). | ||
October 29–30, 1991 | Madrid | Spain[13] | Held in conjunction with the Madrid Conference of 1991 at the Royal Palace of Madrid, which also included Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. Final meeting between American and Soviet heads of state due to the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the transfer of power to President Boris Yeltsin of the new Russian Federation in December 1991. |