Khmer Rouge forces take Phnom Penh

The conference convened the USSR and United States with Egypt and Israel after the October War. The limited format left Palestinian representation contested and showed how superpower diplomacy could...

India carried out an underground nuclear explosion, calling it a peaceful nuclear test. The event challenged the nuclear hierarchy and exposed the limits of the NPT regime; Soviet officials emphasized...

Military officers deposed Emperor Haile Selassie amid popular unrest, peasant demands, labor organizing, and student protest. The USSR was not the author of the revolution; later Soviet alignment with...

The leaders agreed on broad limits for strategic offensive weapons as a basis for further negotiations. The framework advanced détente but remained a bargain between nuclear powers whose decisions...

Portugal and the MPLA, FNLA, and UNITA agreed on a transition to independence. The movements had distinct social bases and competing political visions; the accord soon collapsed as foreign...

The fall of Saigon ended the Republic of Vietnam and completed the reunification process under the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Soviet material support mattered, but Vietnamese people and movements...

FRELIMO’s liberation struggle culminated in independence after Portugal’s 1974 revolution. The USSR recognized the new state and offered support, while Mozambicans faced the legacies of colonial...

The spacecraft docked in orbit and crews met during a symbolic détente mission. Cooperation was real but limited: both programs retained military links, and the joint spectacle drew on labor and...

The USSR and 34 other states signed commitments on European security, borders, cooperation, and human rights. Moscow emphasized recognition of postwar borders; dissidents later used the human-rights...

The Nobel Committee honored physicist and dissident Sakharov for advocacy of human rights and disarmament. Soviet authorities denied him permission to travel, illustrating the conflict between...