Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Geneva, Paris and Vienna
Summits, 1955 - 1961
- Geneva Summit July 1955
- First meeting between the
USSR and the US since
Potsdam
- Attempted to resolve the status of
Germany and begin negotiations
about arms control
- Khrushchev
- Took the initiative,
reasserting Stalin's plan to
create a united and neutral
Germany
- US refused to accept this
- West Germany had joined NATO
- Proposed
disbanding NATO
and the Warsaw
Pact
- Eisenhower refused - saw
NATO as essential to Western
Security
- Eisenhower
- Suggested an Arms
Limitation Treaty backed by
an 'OPEN SKIES' policy
- Proposal involved agreed limits
on SUPERPOWER MILITARY
POWER
- Superpowers would also authorize
surveillance flights over each other's
territory to check that limits were being
adhered to
- Rejected by Khrushchev
- Did not want the West to 'spy' on Soviet territory
- No agreement was reached but there was an
acceptance of the STATUS QUO and that
neither side wanted war
- Agreement to meet in Paris in 1960
- Paris Summit 1960
- Khrushchev demanded an apology for the spying
- Eisenhower stated that no further missions would
take place but refused to apologize
- Khrushchev walked out of the summit
- Memoirs showed that the U2 incident was the
point at which the Kremlin hardliners lost faith in
'peaceful coexistence
- U2 Incident
- 15 days before Paris summit, Khrushchev
announced that a U2 spy plane had been
shot down over Siberia
- Assuming the plane had been destroyed,
Eisenhower released a cover story, claiming that
the plane was a weather plane, not a spy plane
- Soviet forces had captured the plane
and the pilot - able to prove that
Eisenhower had lied to the public
- Propaganda victory for Khrushchev
- Vienna Summit, 1961
- Kennedy was determined to assert
US strength due to the failure of his
Cuban policy during the Bay of Pigs
incident
- The Soviet Position
- Khrushchev regarded Berin as the top priority
- Under pressure from Ulbricht to stop
the exodus of East Germans to West
Germany via Berlin
- 2.7 Million had left since 1945
- Keen to assert his authority by exploiting
Kennedy's inexperience
- The US Position
- Disarmament was
main priority
- Open Skies policy
- Reduced the annual proposals from 20 to
10 in order to help reach an agreement
- The Significance of the Vienna Summit
- Talks failed to reach agreement on
the status of Berlin and on arms
limitations
- Khrushchev appeared to threaten
Kennedy with military action if the US
continued to support West Berlin
- Kennedy used the
opportunity to assert his
hard-line position
- 'If all else fails in Berlin, we will
use our nuclear weapons'