| •1972 | Nixon visits China |
| SALT I signed |
| •1973 | U.S. supports Israel in Yom Kippur War |
| •1973–1974 | OPEC oil embargo |
| •1975 | Helsinki accords |
| •1978 | Camp David accords |
| •1979 | Iran hostage crisis |
| SALT II signed; Congress does not ratify |
| Soviet Union invades Afghanistan |
| •1982 | Boland Amendment passed |
| 750,000 attend nuclear freeze rally in New York City |
| •1983 | Suicide bomb attack in Lebanon kills 241 U.S. soldiers |
| U.S. invasion of Grenada |
| •1987 | Senate hearings on Iran-Contra affair |
| Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty signed |
| •1989 | Tiananmen Square protests |
| Fall of the Berlin Wall |
| •1990–1991 | Soviet Union dismantled |
| •1991 | U.S. pushes Iraq out of Kuwait |
| •1993 | Second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty signed |