Thirty years ago on May 26, 1972, President Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the Interim Agreement to the Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms — thus beginning the end to the Cold War. This historic summit paved the way for a free Europe, the reunification of Germany and the breakup of the Soviet Union in the next decade.

With first China, then the Soviet Union and the continued talks to bring about peace in Viet Nam, Time named both Nixon and Henry Kissenger the men of the year for 1972. Speaking of these honored statesmen, the editors reflected that " . . .together in their unique symbiosis—Nixon supplying power and will, Kissinger an intellectual framework and negotiating skills—they have been changing the shape of the world, accomplishing the most profound rearrangement of the earth's political powers since the beginning of the cold war."

See Nixon and Brezhnev sign the agreements
Nixon visits the Soviet Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Bush and Putin sign similar treaty thirty years later.

The State Department — the ABM Treaty
The Cold War Museum
The Cold War Interactive from CNN
The Cold War — from the British perspective
National Security Archive — Cold War Interviews
Where were the atomic weapons?
Read the Time editorial from January 1, 1973