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President Richard Nixon visits Romania, improving ties between Romania and the West. This is followed by several visits by Ceausescu to the United States.
President Nixon orders the secret bombing of Cambodia with the intent of wiping out North Vietnamese Communist camps there. This causes great destruction and upheaval in Cambodia.
Military buildup along the border of the Amur and Ussuri rivers leads to clashes between Chinese and Soviet border guards. Emergency talks take place between Soviet premier Alexei Kosygin and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in September to stop hostilities. They agree to a formal demarcation of territory.
Gustav Husak becomes president of Czechoslovakia. He reverses all the reforms of the Prague Spring movement and brings orthodox Communism back to Czechoslovakia.
In need of economic and military aid, Sihanouk renews diplomatic relations with the United States.
The president of Somalia is assassinated and a military group, led by Major General Siad Barre, seizes power. Barre declares Somalia to be a socialist state, and renames it the Somali Democratic Republic. He increases ties with the Soviet Union and other Communist countries.
The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) begins between the United States and the Soviet Union. The two nations negotiate curtailing the manufacture of strategic missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
Read more about arms control and disarmament.
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