Geneva Summit (1955)
The Geneva Summit of 1955 was a Cold War-era meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. Held on July 18, 1955, it was a meeting of "The Big Four": President Dwight D. Eisenhower of the United States, Prime Minister Anthony Eden of Britain, Premier Nikolai A. Bulganin of the Soviet Union, and Prime Minister Edgar Faure of France. They were accompanied by the foreign ministers of the four powers (who were also members of the Council of Foreign Ministers): John Foster Dulles, Harold Macmillan, Vyacheslav Molotov, and Antoine Pinay. Also in attendance was Nikita Khrushchev, de facto leader of the Soviet Union.
| Geneva Summit 1955 | |
|---|---|
The American delegation. On the front row, from left to right: Herman Phleger, Charles E. Wilson, John Foster Dulles, Livingston T. Merchant, Douglas MacArthur II | |
| Host country | Switzerland |
| Date | July 18, 1955 |
| Cities | Geneva |
| Participants | Premier Nikolai Bulganin President Dwight D. Eisenhower Prime Minister Edgar Faure Prime Minister Anthony Eden |
| Follows | Potsdam Conference |
| Precedes | Four Power Paris Summit |
This was the first such meeting since the Potsdam conference ten years earlier.
The purpose was to bring together world leaders to begin discussions on peace. Although those discussions led down many different roads (arms negotiations, trade barriers, diplomacy, nuclear warfare, etc.), the talks were influenced by the common goal for increased global security.