Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev

Leonid Brezhnev's term as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, succeeding that of Nikita Khrushchev spanned the administrations of five U.S. Presidents, Lyndon B. Johnson through Ronald Reagan.

Throughout his presidency, Gerald R. Ford sought to improve U.S. relations with the Soviet Union through frequent communications and personal meetings with Brezhnev. For example, their meeting in Vladivostok in November 1974 emphasized the importance of normalizing economic ties between the two countries.