home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
TIME: Almanac of the 20th Century
/
TIME, Almanac of the 20th Century.ISO
/
charts
/
summits
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1994-02-27
|
23KB
|
451 lines
<text>
<title>
(Chart) US-Soviet Summits -- Chronology: 1943-1991
</title>
<history>
Compact ALMANAC--World Statistics
</history>
<article>
<source>Time Almanac</source>
<hdr>
U.S.-Soviet Summits
Chronology: 1943-1991
</hdr><body>
<p>[The following was prepared by W. Taylor Fain, III, of the
Office of the Historian.]
</p>
<p> Every President since Franklin D. Roosevelt has conferred with
the Soviet leadership, either the head of the Communist Party or
head of the government. These meetings, 24 in all, went through
several distinct phases. During World War II, Roosevelt and
Truman met with Soviet and British leaders to decide on the
conduct of military operations and to make arrangements for the
peace. Three meetings during the Eisenhower Presidency were
expanded to include France, and Eisenhower grappled
unsuccessfully in the enlarged forum over the elusive German
peace settlement and the growing problem of nuclear weapons.
Kennedy and Johnson each met the Soviet leadership during the
1960s in informal circumstances over issues ranging from Europe
to crises in the Middle and Far East. Five Nixon-Ford meetings
with Chairman Brezhnev and a subsequent Carter-Brezhnev
conference in the 1970s dealt primarily with arms control. The
agenda of President Reagan's five meetings with General Secretary
Gorbachev at Geneva, Reykjavik, Washington, Moscow, and New York
included arms reductions, human rights, regional issues, and
bilateral affairs. President Bush expanded the agenda to include
transnational issues at Malta, Washington, Helsinki, Paris, and
London.
</p>
<p>November 28-December 1, 1943: (Tehran: Roosevelt, Churchill, and
Stalin)
</p>
<p> Discussion centered on planning for the cross-channel invasion
of enemy-occupied France. The three powers also agreed to try to
get Turkey to join the war and to split Finland away from the
Axis powers. Also discussed were political questions, including
a future world organization, and postwar policy toward Germany.
The leaders issued a special declaration recognizing Iran's
contribution to the war effort. Decisions on some issues, such
as future Polish boundaries, were postponed. This was the only
summit held outside Europe, the Soviet Union, or the United
States.
</p>
<p>February 4-11, 1945: (Yalta: Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin)
</p>
<p> The three leaders issued an invitation to the United Nations
to meet in the United States and discussed the future of Poland
and Eastern Europe, the status of postwar Germany, and the
conditions for Soviet entry into the Pacific war. In a
Declaration on Liberated Europe, the Allies pledged to assist the
liberated peoples to establish order and create representative
governments through free elections. In a secret agreement, the
Soviet Union promised to enter the Pacific war 2 to 3 months
after Germany's surrender in return for certain Far Eastern
concessions. Yalta remains the most controversial summit meeting
because the Soviets later unilaterally subverted the concept of
free elections to establish hegemony over Eastern Europe.
</p>
<p>July 17-August 2, 1945: (Potsdam: Truman, Churchill and Attlee,
and Stalin)
</p>
<p> The conference dealt with the military details of the Soviet
entry into the Pacific war and political questions, primarily the
occupation of Germany and the question of German reparations.
The three powers created a Council of Foreign Ministers to work
on peace treaties with the European Axis powers and their Eastern
European satellites, and reached an agreement on the resettlement
of ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe to Germany. In a
declaration issued on July 26, the United States, Great Britain,
and China demanded Japan's unconditional surrender. During the
conference, Turman learned of the successful test of the atomic
bomb and informed Stalin in general terms.
</p>
<p>July 18-23, 1955: (Geneva: Eisenhower, Eden, Faure, Bulganin and
Khrushchev)
</p>
<p> At this first postwar conference, also the first to be called
a "summit", Eisenhower advanced the "Open Skies" proposal calling
for an exchange of military blueprints with the Soviet Union and
aerial reconnaissance of each other's military installations.
The participants also discussed disarmament, German reunification
through free elections, European security, and the need for
greater East-West contacts through travel and exchange of
information.
</p>
<p>September 15, 26-27, 1959: (Washington-Camp David: Eisenhower
and Khrushchev)
</p>
<p> Following brief meetings with Eisenhower upon his arrival in
Washington on September 15, Khrushchev embarked on a 10-day trip
to New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, farm communities in
Iowa, and Pittsburgh, arranged to acquaint him with the American
way of life. Eisenhower and Khrushchev then engaged in
substantive talks for 2 days at Camp David. They agreed to
expand exchanges and to remove the Soviet deadline for a Berlin
settlement, but no progress was made on disarmament and the
reunification of Germany. They also agreed on a four-power
summit in Paris the following year. Khrushchev also visited
Eisenhower's farm at Gettysburg. Just before he left, Khrushchev
addressed the American people on national television. This
meeting constituted the first visit to the United States of a
Soviet leader since establishment of U.S.-Soviet relations in
1933.
</p>
<p>May 16-17, 1960: (Paris: Eisenhower, Macmillan, De Gaulle,
and Khrushchev)
</p>
<p> The four leaders planned to discuss Germany and Berlin,
disarmament, nuclear testing, and the general state of East-West
relations. On the second day of the conference, before any
issues could be considered, Khrushchev demanded that Eisenhower
apologize for the U-2 overflight of the Soviet Union on May 1.
When Eisenhower refused, Khrushchev seized upon the issue to
leave the conference. President de Gaulle's attempt to mediate
failed.
</p>
<p>June 3-4, 1961: (Vienna: Kennedy and Khrushchev)
</p>
<p> The status of Berlin was the major subject of discussion, but
the conflict in Laos and the question of disarmament were also on
the agenda. Khrushchev's truculence on Berlin surprised and
sobered Kennedy, but some progress was made when the two leaders
agreed that further discussions on Laos should be continued at
the Foreign Minister level. Kennedy replaced the highly-
structured conference favored by Eisenhower with more informal
and personalized meetings.
</p>
<p>June 23 and 25, 1967: (Glassboro: Johnson and Kosygin)
</p>
<p> The meeting at Glassboro, New Jersey, was arranged and agreed
on after considerable haggling over a suitable location. It
followed Kosygin's visit to the United Nations, where he came to
support the Arab nations' proposals for ending the Middle East
conflict that led to the June 1967 Arab-Israeli war. In addition
to the Middle East, disarmament and the Vietnam war were also
discussed. During the conference, the Soviet Union served as
intermediary in conveying North Vietnamese willingness to
negotiate in exchange for a halt to the U.S. bombing. The U.S.
counterproposals via Moscow were never answered.
</p>
<p>May 22-30, 1972: (Moscow: Nixon and Brezhnev)
</p>
<p> This meeting had two principal and substantial
accomplishments. First, it established a personal relationship
between Nixon and Brezhnev, which facilitated the convening of
subsequent meetings between the two leaders. Second, Nixon and
Brezhnev signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty and the
Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I) Interim Agreement, both
of which had been in negotiation in Helsinki and Vienna for many
months. Also concluded were agreements on public health,
environmental cooperation, incidents at sea, exchanges in
science, technology, education and culture, and a Declaration of
Basic Principles of Mutual Relations.
</p>
<p>June 18-25, 1973: (Washington: Nixon and Brezhnev)
</p>
<p> Brezhnev's visit to the United States resulted in 47 hours of
meetings with Nixon in Washington, Camp David, and San Clemente.
The two leaders signed nine accords, which included an Agreement
on the Prevention of Nuclear War and an Agreement on Basic
Principles of Negotiations on the Further Limitation of Strategic
Offensive Arms. Other agreements signed at the summit dealt with
scientific cooperation, agriculture, trade, and other bilateral
issues. The joint communique expressed "deep satisfaction" with
the conclusion of the Paris Agreement on Vietnam which had been
signed the preceding January. Nixon stated at Brezhnev's
departure that the meeting "built on the strong foundation that
we laid a year ago."
</p>
<p>June 28-July 3, 1974: (Moscow: Nixon and Brezhnev)
</p>
<p> Watergate and the President's imminent resignation
overshadowed the meeting with the General Secretary and limited
expectations on both sides. The two leaders discussed arms
control and several international and bilateral issues in Moscow
and at Brezhnev's villa in Oreanda on the Black Sea. They signed
a protocol limiting each side to one ABM site apiece instead of
the two allowed in the 1972 ABM Treaty, and a Threshold Test Ban
Treaty, which limited the size of underground nuclear weapons
tests. The Test Ban Treaty was never ratified by the United
States, because of concerns about its verifiability. The
governments signed several other instruments dealing with
scientific cooperation, cultural exchanges, and other bilateral
matters. Nixon and Brezhnev also agreed to explore the
possibility of a 10-year time period for a SALT treaty, which
opened the way for the Vladivostok accord a few months later. The
communique reaffirmed an agreement to hold regular meetings.
</p>
<p>November 23-24, 1974: (Vladivostok: Ford Brezhnev)
</p>
<p> At the Vladivostok meeting, which followed visits by Ford to
Japan and Korea, discussions focused on strategic arms
limitations as well as on a number of bilateral and international
issues, including the Conference on Security and Cooperation in
Europe (CSCE) and the Middle East. In the SALT II negotiations,
Ford and Brezhnev reached agreement in principle on some of the
basic elements that were subsequently incorporated in the 1979
treaty. They issued a joint statement on strategic offensive
arms (the Vladivostok agreement) and a joint communique calling
for continuing efforts at arms limitation and the development of
economic cooperation.
</p>
<p>July 30 and August 2, 1975: (Helsinki: Ford and Brezhnev)
</p>
<p> During two sessions at Helsinki, immediately prior to and
following the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe,
Ford and Brezhnev attempted unsuccessfully to reach further
agreement on strategic arms limitations. Differences between the
two governments over cruise missiles and the Soviet Backfire
bomber frustrated Ford's and Kissinger's desires to strengthen
cooperation between the two superpowers and to conclude a SALT II
agreement. Ford and Brezhnev held frank discussions on other
issues, including the Arab-Israeli conflict and the relationship
between Soviet emigration policy and most-favored-nation trading
status.
</p>
<p>June 15-18, 1979: (Vienna: Carter and Brezhnev)
</p>
<p> The SALT II Treaty was signed at this summit in Vienna.
Carter and Brezhnev also discussed other arms control questions
including the continuation of the SALT process, and had wide-
ranging exchanges on human rights and trade, the Middle East,
Afghanistan, Africa, China, and other regional issues. The two
leaders also issued a joint statement of principles and basic
guidelines for subsequent negotiations on the limitation of
strategic arms. The SALT II Treaty was never ratified.
</p>
<p>November 19-21, 1985: (Geneva: Reagan and Gorbachev)
</p>
<p> President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev discussed a
four-part agenda: human rights, regional issues, bilateral
matters, and arms control. The President pressed for improvement
in Soviet human rights practices, removal of Soviet troops from
Afghanistan, and the resolution of regional conflicts in a number
of countries including Cambodia, Angola, Ethiopia, and Nicaragua.
In the arms control area, both leaders called for early progress
on reductions in strategic, offensive nuclear forces. They also
had frank exchanges on strategic defense issues. They agreed to
study the establishment of Nuclear Risk Reduction Centers and to
accelerate efforts to conclude an effective and verifiable treaty
banning chemical weapons. They endorsed a policy of regular
exchanges between senior U.S. and Soviet officials. The General
Secretary accepted the President's invitation to visit the United
States in 1986 and the President agreed to visit and U.S.S.R the
following year. At the end of the meeting, the United States and
the Soviet Union signed the General Agreement on Contacts,
Exchanges, and Cooperation in Scientific, Technical, Educational,
Cultural, and Other Fields, and announced that the two countries
would resume civil air service.
</p>
<p>October 10-12, 1986: (Reykjavik: Reagan and Gorbachev)
</p>
<p> President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev held a
meeting in Reykjavik to discuss all four points of the U.S.-
Soviet agenda -- human rights, regional conflicts, bilateral
cooperation, and arms control -- with particularly intense
discussions on arms reductions. The two leaders agreed in
principle to 50% reductions in strategic offensive arms to a
level of 6,000 warheads on 1,600 delivery systems they also
reached agreement on a counting rule for strategic bombers.
In addition, they agreed to seek an initial INF [Intermediate-
Range Nuclear Forces] agreement for a global ceiling of 100
warheads on longer-range INF missiles, with none in Europe, and
constraints on shorter- range INF missiles. The President and
Secretary Gorbachev agreed to expand mutually beneficial
bilateral cooperation. However, on the final day of the meeting,
Gorbachev insisted that further progress on INF and START be
linked to new and unacceptable restrictions on the U.S. Strategic
Defense Initiative program. The President rejected such linkage,
noting that the proposed Soviet restrictions on SDI were more
stringent than those contained in the ABM Treaty and would
cripple the SDI research program.
</p>
<p>December 7-10, 1987: (Washington: Reagan and Gorbachev)
</p>
<p> President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev met in
Washington to continue discussions on the four-part U.S.-Soviet
agenda: arms reductions, human rights, bilateral issues, and
regional issues. They had full and frank discussions on human
rights issues. The U.S. and Soviet leaders discussed increasing
bilateral exchanges, cooperation on environmental matters, and
trade expansion. They held wide-ranging talks on regional issues
including Afghanistan, the Iran-Iraq war, Central America,
southern Africa, the Middle East, and Cambodia.
</p>
<p> The two leaders signed the "Treaty Between the United States
of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the
Elimination of Their Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range
Missiles." They instructed their negotiators at the Geneva
Nuclear and Space Talks to intensify efforts to complete a Treaty
on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms to
implement the principle of a 50% reduction in these arms, which
was agreed to at the Reykjavik meeting. The leaders also
instructed their negotiators to work out a new and separate
treaty on defense and space issues that would commit the sides to
observe the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, as signed in 1972,
while conducting their research, development and testing as
required, which are permitted by the ABM Treaty, and not to
withdraw from the ABM Treaty for a specified period of time.
</p>
<p> Secretary Shultz and Soviet Foreign Minister Shevardnadze also
signed agreements to increase air service between the United
States and the Soviet Union and to extend the U.S.-Soviet world
oceans agreement. General Secretary Gorbachev renewed his
invitation for the President to visit the Soviet Union in the
first half of 1988, and the President accepted.
</p>
<p>May 29-June 1, 1988: (Moscow: Reagan and Gorbachev)
</p>
<p> President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev met in
Moscow to continue substantive discussions on the four-point
U.S.-Soviet agenda: arms control, human rights and humanitarian
affairs, settlement of regional conflicts, and bilateral
relations. A wide-ranging discussion of regional questions
included the Middle East, the Iran-Iraq war, southern Africa, the
Horn of Africa, Central America, Cambodia, the Korean Peninsula,
Afghanistan, and other issues. The two leaders exchanged and
signed ratification documents on the Intermediate-Range Nuclear
Forces Treaty, which the Supreme Soviet and the U.S. Senate had
approved on May 23 and 27 respectively. On Nuclear and Space
Talks, understandings were reached in a number of areas, as a
joint draft text of a treaty on reduction and limitation of
strategic offensive arms was being elaborated in the Geneva
negotiations. Exchanges on START resulted in the achievement of
substantial additional common ground. The two leaders also
discussed nuclear non-proliferation, the Nuclear Risk Reduction
Centers established in Moscow and Washington, the status of
ongoing negotiations toward a comprehensive, effectively
verifiable, and truly global ban on chemical weapons, the status
of conventional forces negotiations, and the Conference on
Security and Cooperation in Europe.
</p>
<p> Secretary Shultz and Soviet Foreign Minister Shevardnadze also
signed or consummated through an exchange of diplomatic notes
nine separate agreements, two of them related to arms control:
the agreement on Advanced Notification of Strategic Ballistic
Missile Launches and the Joint Verification Experiment agreement
on nuclear testing. The seven other agreements covered a range
of issues such as expansion of U.S.-Soviet cultural and
educational exchanges, U.S.-Soviet cooperation on peaceful uses
of atomic power and on space exploration, maritime search and
rescue, fisheries, transportation technology, and radio
navigation.
</p>
<p>December 7, 1988: (New York: Reagan and Gorbachev)
</p>
<p> President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev met on
Governor's Island in New York Harbor, while the Soviet leader was
visiting New York City to address the United Nations General
Assembly. The meeting, which Vice President Bush also attended,
was a private, non-negotiating session, followed by a luncheon.
</p>
<p>December 2-3, 1989: (Malta: Bush and Gorbachev)
</p>
<p> President Bush and General Secretary Gorbachev held a
shipboard meeting in the harbor at Valletta, Malta, for an
informal, personal discussion of major issues. The two leaders
held a 5-hour session on December 2, including a one and one-half
hour private meeting. A scheduled afternoon meeting and dinner
was cancelled because of a major winter storm. They met again
for 3 hours on the morning of December 3, and then held a joint
news conference.
</p>
<p> During the meetings, the two leaders discussed the remarkable
events leading to peaceful and democratic change in Eastern and
Central Europe. President Bush noted his strong support for
perestroika. Discussions also reviewed future steps in the U.S.-
Soviet relationship, economic and commercial relations between
the two nations, human rights, regional issues, particularly
Central America, environmental concerns, and a range of arms
control issues, including chemical weapons, conventional forces
negotiations, strategic arms talks, the Threshold Test Ban
Treaty, arms control verification, missile proliferation, the
Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the
situation in Lebanon. The two leaders agreed to hold a formal
summit meeting in Washington in June 1990.
</p>
<p>May 30-June 3, 1990: (Washington: Bush and Gorbachev)
</p>
<p> Presidents Bush and Gorbachev met in Washington and at Camp
David. During the first two days of meetings in Washington, the
Presidents held wide-ranging discussions on political and
economic matters including arms control, German unification, and
U.S.-Soviet trade. On June 1, the leaders signed a key elements
agreement for a strategic arms treaty, a chemical weapons
reduction accord, and a trade agreement reducing barriers to
U.S.-Soviet commerce. Several other bilateral accords increasing
cultural and scientific exchanges as well as maritime and air
links were concluded. A 5-year U.S.-Soviet grain deal was signed.
While in Washington, President Gorbachev hosted events for
prominent American figures in the political and business worlds
and the arts.
</p>
<p> On June 2, Presidents Bush and Gorbachev spent the day in the
more informal atmosphere of Camp David, where they discussed
regional issues, including Afghanistan, Lithuania, and Central
America. They also discussed U.S.-Soviet economic relations. The
following day, President Gorbachev left Washington for
Minneapolis, where he met with local business leaders, and San
Francisco, where he met with former President Reagan, before
returning to Moscow.
</p>
<p>September 9, 1990: (Helsinki: Bush and Gorbachev)
</p>
<p> Presidents Bush and Gorbachev met in Helsinki to discuss the
crisis in the Persian Gulf caused by Iraq's invasion and
annexation of Kuwait. The summit, announced on September 1, was
the product of a decision by the Presidents at Camp David in June
to hold more informal and unstructured meetings as global
developments warranted.
</p>
<p> The Presidents met for seven hours (three hours privately in
the morning and four with an expanded group of advisers in the
afternoon). They issued a joint statement expressing their
solidarity in opposition to the Iraqi invasion and their
intention to cooperate fully in ending the Gulf crisis. They
also urged their negotiators to move forward more rapidly in
finalizing both strategic and conventional arms control
agreements and discussed the progress of Soviet economic reforms.
</p>
<p>November 19, 1990: (Paris: Bush and Gorbachev)
</p>
<p> Presidents Bush and Gorbachev met during the November 19 CSCE
summit in Paris. They held a private discussion on the crisis in
the Persian Gulf and Soviet support for a proposed UN resolution
authorizing the use of force against Iraq should it prove
necessary.
</p>
<p>July 17, 1991: (London: Bush and Gorbachev)
</p>
<p> Presidents Bush and Gorbachev met privately over lunch on the
final day of the economic summit of the Group of Seven
industrialized nations (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan,
the United Kingdom, the United States). They announced the
completion of a START agreement and scheduled a summit in Moscow
for July 30-31. They also discussed the economic situation in
the Soviet Union.
</p>
</body>
</article>
</text>