In this November 1979 conversation, Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin confronted former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger over his increasingly anti-Soviet rhetoric and alignment with Republican hardliners, which Dobrynin criticized as opportunistic and damaging to détente. Kissinger defended his shift as a tactical response to domestic political pressures and his ambitions to return to government, while still insisting he valued stable Soviet-American relations. The discussion also touched on US fears of instability in Saudi Arabia, the strategic implications of Soviet and Cuban involvement in Africa, and Kissinger's belief in the need for a tacit division of global influence between the superpowers.

Concerns US-Soviet relations, including involvement in Africa, NATO, China, and SALT.

A letter from Brezhnev to Willy Brandt before their meeting in Madrid. Discusses detente and the disarmament.

This memorandum provides an overview of the meeting between Bulgarian leader Todor Zhivkov and Leonid Brezhnev. The two discussed international affairs, specifically escalating tensions with the U.S. and NATO, and Soviet interest in maintaining and strengthening detente. In response, a new international summit of the communist parties is proposed.

Soviet letter to US President Jimmy Carter responding to the US position on the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The CC CPSU Politburo informs the White House that the Soviet leadership desires to maintain detente with the US and that the intervention of Soviet troops was done at the request of the Afgan leadership, under Article 51 of the UN charter.