In 1956 President Dwight Eisenhower created the people-to-people exchange program between Americans and citizens of other countries. President Eisenhower’s intention was to involve people and organized groups at all levels of society in personal citizen diplomacy with the hope that people-to-people relationships, fostered through sister city affiliations, would lessen the chance of future world conflicts. Seattle is proud to have been one of the innovators in promoting and developing sister city relationships. In 1957 Seattle and Kobe, Japan, formed one of the first sister city relationships. Seattle and Tashkent, Uzbekistan (former USSR) also embarked on uncharted waters when they established the first U.S.-Soviet sister city affiliation in 1973.