Afghanistan Soviet invasion

By the 1970s, both sides were militarily fatigued and sought to reach a political accommodation. A period of detente followed, in which Strategic Arms Limitation Talks took place, and the US opened diplomatic relations with the People s Republic of China. Unfortunately, detente collapsed at the end of the decade following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. 

A good appraisal of the complexities of triangular politics can be found in Ross, ed., China, the Vnited States, and the Soviet Union. See especially Stephen Sestanovich, US Policy Toward the Soviet Union, 1970-1979 The Impact of China, which argues that improved U.S.-PRC relations had relatively little effect on U.S.-Soviet relations during the 1970S and in fact failed to restrain Moscow s adventurism, which culminated in the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. 

---