When incompetence in the Kremlin turns murderous, its incumbents can begin to tremble, says Nina L. Khrushcheva.

The US National Archives has released its last instalment of White House conversations that were secretly recorded by president Richard Nixon in the 1970s, a batch of tapes mainly highlighting domestic and foreign policy issues.

Richard Fitzpatrick reads a fascinating account of tumultuous events in the early 1980s when the Cold War threatened to erupt into all-out confrontation.

HE ROSE a taoiseach and sat down as Bertie the backbencher.

WHILE recuperating from an assassination attempt in 1981, President Reagan wrote a heartfelt four-page letter to Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, asking if they could work together to reduce the tensions between their nations, according to a new book about Reagan’s letters.