This story is mainly based on memories and notes from four decades in the service of the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The perspective on the international developments described is personal and selective. My point of departure is how events looked from my different postings in Stockholm, West Berlin, Paris, Ankara, East Berlin, Brussels, and Washington. Partly at close range, partly at a distance, I witnessed how the Greek military junta was brought down, how Turkey went from a military regime to civilian rule, how the Berlin Wall came down, how Germany was reunited, how the Soviet Empire was dissolved, how the Swedish security policy doctrine was reformulated, how Russia was persuaded to withdraw its troops from the Baltic states and how Sweden for a short period became a respected cooperation partner of the United States.