President Eisenhower and Premier
Khrushchev at Camp David, 1959.

1958
President Dwight Eisenhower and Premier Nikita Khrushchev sign the General Exchanges Agreement, establishing US-USSR exchanges. The advent of exchanges gives American scholars the unprecedented opportunity to travel to the USSR, enabling first-hand research and observation.

Administration of the exchange program is awarded to the Inter-University Committee on Travel Grants (IUCTG), which was created in 1956 by the major centers of Russian studies in the United States to assist teachers and scholars with travel in the Soviet Union.