List of Soviet Union–United States summits

Moscow Summit (1988) postage stamps, Spasskaya Tower and handshake

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.

World War II / Allies of World War II

Main articles: Allies of World War II and List of Allied World War II conferences

The "Big Three" Allied leaders (left to right) at the Yalta Conference, February 1945: Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin.

Clement Attlee, Harry S. Truman and Joseph Stalin at the Potsdam Conference, July 1945.

Date	Place	Country	President of the United States	General Secretary or Premier of the Soviet Union	Notes
November 28–December 1, 1943	Tehran	Iran	Franklin D. Roosevelt	Joseph Stalin	Main article: Tehran Conference 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			Main article: Yalta Conference 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. 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.
July 17–August 2, 1945	Potsdam	Allied-occupied Germany	Harry S. Truman		Main article: Potsdam Conference 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.

Cold War

Cold War (1953–1962)

Main article: Cold War (1953–1962)

Nikita Khrushchev meeting John F. Kennedy at the Vienna Summit, June 1961

Date	Place	Country	President of the United States	General Secretary or Premier of the Soviet Union	Notes
July 18–23, 1955	Geneva	Switzerland	Dwight D. Eisenhower	Nikita Khrushchev and Nikolai Bulganin	Main article: Geneva Summit (1955) 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		Nikita Khrushchev	Main article: State visit by Nikita Khrushchev to the United States First visit by a Soviet leader to the United States.
May 16–17, 1960	Paris	France			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	John F. Kennedy		Main article: Vienna Summit 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.

Cold War (1962–1979)

Main article: Cold War (1962–1979)

Alexei Kosygin with U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson at the summit

Leonid Brezhnev meets with Richard Nixon during the Soviet leader's trip to the U.S. in June 1973

Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev signing SALT II Treaty, June 18, 1979, in Vienna

Date	Place	Country	President of the United States	General Secretary or Premier of the Soviet Union	Notes
June 23 and 25, 1967	Glassboro	United States	Lyndon B. Johnson	Alexei Kosygin	Main article: Glassboro Summit Conference 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	Richard Nixon	Leonid Brezhnev and Alexei Kosygin	Main article: Moscow Summit (1972) 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			Main article: Washington Summit (1973) Signing of the Agreement on the Prevention of Nuclear War at the White House.
June 28–July 3, 1974	Moscow	Soviet Union		Leonid Brezhnev	Main article: Moscow Summit (1974) Ended in the signing of the Threshold Test Ban Treaty limiting nuclear weapons tests.
November 23–24, 1974	Vladivostok	Soviet Union	Gerald Ford		Main article: Vladivostok Summit Meeting on Arms Control 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
July 30 and August 2, 1975	Helsinki	Finland			Main article: Helsinki Accords 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
June 15–18, 1979	Vienna	Austria	Jimmy Carter		Signing of the second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT II) at the Hofburg Palace.

Cold War (1985–1991)

Main article: Cold War (1985–1991)

Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan sign the INF Treaty at the White House in December 1987

George H. W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev at the Helsinki summit in 1990

Date	Place	Country	President of the United States	General Secretary or Premier of the Soviet Union	Notes
November 19–21, 1985	Geneva	Switzerland	Ronald Reagan	Mikhail Gorbachev	Main article: Geneva Summit (1985) 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			Main article: Reykjavík Summit 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
December 8–10, 1987	Washington, D.C.	United States			Main article: Washington Summit (1987) 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.
May 29–June 3, 1988	Moscow	Soviet Union			Main article: Moscow Summit (1988) Held in the Kremlin Palace. Continued negotiations on topics from the Washington Summit and produced a joint statement on arms control.
December 7, 1988	New York City	United States			Main article: Governors Island Summit 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.
December 2–3, 1989	Valletta	Malta	George H. W. Bush		Main article: Malta Summit 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.
May 30–June 3, 1990	Washington, D.C.	United States			Main article: Washington Summit (1990) Signing of the 1990 Chemical Weapons Accord.
September 9, 1990	Helsinki	Finland			Main article: Helsinki Summit (1990) Discussed the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and German reunification.
November 19, 1990	Paris	France			Signing of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe.
July 17, 1991	London	United Kingdom			Held in conjunction with the 17th G7 Summit.
July 30–31, 1991	Moscow	Soviet Union			Signing of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I).
October 29–30, 1991	Madrid	Spain			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.

See also

• Arms control
• Cold War
• Détente
• Foreign policy of the United States
• Foreign relations of the Soviet Union
• List of international trips made by presidents of the United States
• Nuclear disarmament
• Soviet Union–United States relations
• List of Russia–United States summits

External links

• Zbigniew Brzezinski interviewed about the summits from the Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives
• "Address to the Nation on the Soviet-United States Summit Meeting December 10, 1987". Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Archived from the original on August 26, 2011.
• "Reagan, Gorbachev and Bush at Governor's Island". The National Security Archive. Archived from the original on 2012-01-14.