Paris Summit (1960)

Abstract

The Paris summit was an unsuccessful conference between the heads of the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and France in May 1960. Intended to ease Cold War problems, the summit collapsed acrimoniously before substantive discussions could begin, due to controversy about American aerial espionage over the Soviet Union. The setback initiated an especially tense phase in East–West relations, and discredited the use of four‐power summits to address the challenges of the Cold War.