
Soviet Union–United States summits were held from 1943 to 1991. The topics discussed at thesummits between thepresident of the United States and either thegeneral secretary or thepremier of the Soviet Union ranged from fighting theAxis powers duringWorld War II toarms control between the twosuperpowers themselves during theCold War.[1]


| Date | Place | Country | President of the United States | General Secretary orPremier of the Soviet Union | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 28–December 1, 1943 | Tehran | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Joseph Stalin | Main article:Tehran Conference Held at the Soviet Embassy in Tehran. Also in attendancePrime MinisterWinston Churchill of theUnited Kingdom. Ended with the Western Allies committing themselves to open asecond front againstNazi Germany through the plannedamphibious invasion of Normandy. They also agreed to provide full support to theYugoslav Partisans over theChetniks. In return, the Soviet Union agreed to support the creation of theUnited Nations after the war and eventually enter theAllied campaign against Japan. They also agreed todivide Germany into occupation zones and recognize Iran as an independent state after the war. | |
| February 4–11, 1945 | Yalta | Main article:Yalta Conference Held at theLivadia 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 andBerlin into American, British, French, and Soviet zones of occupation. Imposedreparations,denazification, anddemilitarization on postwar Germany. Obtained Western recognition ofSoviet puppet government in Poland. Obtained Soviet commitment to enter the United Nations in exchange for allowing all 16Soviet Socialist Republics membership. Mandatedtrials forNazi war criminals after the war. | |||
| July 17–August 2, 1945 | Potsdam | Allied-occupied Germany[4] | Harry S. Truman | Main article:Potsdam Conference Held at theCecilienhof Palace. Also in attendance Prime Ministers Winston Churchill andClement Attlee of the United Kingdom, with a switch caused by theLabour Party's victory in the1945 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, initiateddemocratization reforms, and planneddismantlement of industry. Set theOder-Neisse line as the western border of Poland and Germany. Allowedexpulsions of ethnic Germans from Eastern Europe. Created conditions which allowed the Soviet Union to establishsatellite states inEastern Europe after the war. |

| Date | Place | Country | President of the United States | General Secretary or Premier of the Soviet Union | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 18–23, 1955 | Geneva | Dwight D. Eisenhower | Nikita Khrushchev andNikolai Bulganin | Main article:Geneva Summit (1955) Also in attendance Prime MinisterAnthony Eden of the United Kingdom andPrime MinisterEdgar Faure ofFrance. First Four-Power conference since World War II. It was intended to reduce rising international tensions during theCold War, and included discussions oftrade policy, thenuclear arms race, anddisarmament. Failed to achieve settlement onGerman reunification due to Western refusal to withdrawWest Germany fromNATO. | |
| September 15 and 27, 1959 | Washington, D.C., andCamp David | Nikita Khrushchev | First visit by a Soviet leader to the United States. | ||
| May 16–17, 1960 | Paris | Also in attendance Prime MinisterHarold Macmillan of the United Kingdom andPresidentCharles de Gaulle of France. Khrushchev left the summit due to the dispute over the1960 U-2 incident. | |||
| June 3–4, 1961 | Vienna | John F. Kennedy | Main article:Vienna Summit Convened after the botchedBay of Pigs invasion and theBerlin Crisis. Achieved a settlement on theLaotian 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 23 and 25, 1967 | Glassboro | Lyndon B. Johnson | Alexei Kosygin | Main article:Glassboro Summit Conference Held atHollybush Mansion inGlassboro State College. Convened due to the intensifyingVietnam War and theSix-Day War. Failed to reach concrete agreements but resulted in improvedSoviet Union–United States relations and the period ofdétente | |
| May 22–30, 1972 | Moscow | 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 theKremlin Palace. Signing of theAnti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, the firstStrategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I), and theU.S.–Soviet Incidents at Sea Agreement. The treaties limited strategic nuclear weapons and specificallyanti-ballistic missiles | |
| June 18–25, 1973 | Washington, D.C. | Main article:Washington Summit (1973) Signing of theAgreement on the Prevention of Nuclear War at theWhite House. | |||
| June 28–July 3, 1974 | Moscow | Leonid Brezhnev | Main article:Moscow Summit (1974) Ended in the signing of theThreshold Test Ban Treaty limitingnuclear weapons tests. | ||
| November 23–24, 1974 | Vladivostok | 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, includingintercontinental ballistic missiles andsubmarine-launched ballistic missiles withmultiple independently targetable reentry vehicles | ||
| July 30 and August 2, 1975 | Helsinki | Main article:Helsinki Accords Final phase of theConference on Security and Co-operation in Europe. Established theOrganization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and theMoscow 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 | Jimmy Carter | Signing of the secondStrategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT II) at theHofburg Palace. |


| Date | Place | Country | President of the United States | General Secretary or Premier of the Soviet Union | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| November 19–21, 1985 | Geneva | 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 theStrategic Defense Initiative but ended in improved American-Soviet relations. | |
| October 11–12, 1986 | Reykjavík | Main article:Reykjavík Summit Held atHöfði House. Nearly achieved agreement on bilateralnuclear 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. | Main article:Washington Summit (1987) Ended in the signing of theIntermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty limitingshort-range andintermediate-range ballistic missiles. Also included discussions on conventional and chemical weapons; human rights; andproxy conflicts in theThird World. | |||
| May 29–June 3, 1988 | Moscow | Main article:Moscow Summit (1988) Held in theKremlin Palace. Continued negotiations on topics from the Washington Summit and produced a joint statement on arms control. | |||
| December 7, 1988 | New York City | Main article:Governors Island Summit Held onGovernors Island. Also in attendancePresident-electGeorge H. W. Bush. Gorbachev left the summit early due to the1988 Spitak earthquake which struck theArmenian S.S.R. that same day. | |||
| December 2–3, 1989 | Valletta | George H. W. Bush | Main article:Malta Summit Conference convened several weeks after theMonday demonstrations and thefall of the Berlin Wall endingMarxist-Leninist rule inEast Germany. Held aboard the Soviet cruise shipSSMaxim Gorkiy. Conference ended with a symbolic declaration that the Cold War had ended. | ||
| May 30–June 3, 1990 | Washington, D.C. | Main article:Washington Summit (1990) Signing of the1990 Chemical Weapons Accord. | |||
| September 9, 1990 | Helsinki | Main article:Helsinki Summit (1990) Discussed theIraqi invasion of Kuwait andGerman reunification.[14] | |||
| November 19, 1990 | Paris | Signing of theTreaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. | |||
| July 17, 1991 | London | Held in conjunction with the17th G7 Summit. | |||
| July 30–31, 1991 | Moscow | Signing of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I). | |||
| October 29–30, 1991 | Madrid | Held in conjunction with theMadrid Conference of 1991 at theRoyal Palace of Madrid, which also included Israeli Prime MinisterYitzhak Shamir. Final meeting between American and Soviet heads of state due to thedissolution of the Soviet Union and the transfer of power to PresidentBoris Yeltsin of the newRussian Federation in December 1991. |