Between the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 and the singing of
the Helinski accords in August 1975, major changes occurred in the
condition of the East-West conflict and more generally in the structure
of great-power relations which had been built up since the end of the
Second World War. This collection of documents, which includes the main
speeches, treaties and agreements concluded between these two events,
has been designed to illustrate the nature of these changes. The volume
if prefaced by an analytical essay by the editors, and is subsequently
divided into six sections. The first four deal respectively with the
final ending of the cold war through the resolution of the problem of
the two Germanies; the ending of the Vietnam War and the formal entry of
the People's Republic of China into the international system; the
diplomacy of detente between the super-powers and in Europe; and changes
within the Western Alliance involving both NATO and the EEC, and in the
Warsaw Pact.