Past presidential summits brought about historic moments
Presidential summits with antagonistic foreign leaders have yielded more than just headlines: They’re diplomatic opportunities that often prove to be world-changing.
When President Trump faces off June 12 in Singapore with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, the meeting will provide a chance to bring to heel an American foe that has been a burr under the saddle of U.S. presidents from Harry Truman to Barack Obama.
A look at some of the greatest presidential summits in history:
What: Vienna Summit When: June 4, 1961 Who: President John F. Kennedy, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev
The new president's first big foray into international diplomacy pitted the flashy newcomer against Cold War communist Khrushchev just months after the disastrous Bay of Pigs fiasco in Cuba. JFK felt he had not emerged victorious from the meeting, but learned quickly as he stared down Khrushchev during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962.
What: Camp David Accords
When: September 1978 Who: President Jimmy Carter, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin
Carter brokered almost two weeks of secret meetings between Egypt and Israel, leading to Israel's return of the Sinai Peninsula to Egyptian control, and creating a peace between the two nations that has largely remained to this day.
What: Nixon goes to China
When: Feb. 21-28, 1972
Who: President Richard Nixon, China's Mao Zedong
Even icier than U.S.-Soviet tensions, America had basically had no diplomatic relationship with communist China. Nixon's visit broke that ice in a substantial way, starting China's path to a softening of its hard-line past and emergence as a global superpower. The summit remains widely hailed as Nixon's greatest foreign policy achievement.
What: Yalta Conference When: Feb. 4-11, 1945 Who: President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, Soviet Premier Josef Stalin
With Nazi Germany nearing defeat, the Allied leaders set terms for Germany's surrender and the post-war world. The USSR was an original member of the United Nations, but Stalin later backed out of the Yalta agreements, spreading Soviet dominance and control of Eastern Europe, commandeering East Berlin and fueling the Cold War.
What: Geneva Summit
When: Nov. 19-20, 1985 Who: President Ronald Reagan, Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev
The first in a series of five meetings over the next three years eased tension between the superpowers, and is widely seen as leading to the end of the Soviet Union and the removal of the Berlin Wall.