The Australia in World Affairs series commenced in 1950 and provides a continuous, researched scholarly account of Australia's foreign policy. The third volume, Australia in World Affairs 1961–1965, is crowded with major events, with the tension over Berlin, acrimonious disputes over nuclear testing and the advance to the brink of war with Cuba. Chinese troops crossed the Indian frontiers, and Indian and Pakistani armies faced one another. Indonesia's confrontation of Malaysia challenged the security and stability of yet another area of South-East Asia. The United Nations suffered a grave financial crisis which threatened to bring the organisation to a halt. There were, too, events of measureless consequence: the explosion of the Chinese atomic bomb; the bitter controversy between China and the Soviet Union, which shattered the seemingly monolithic structure of Communism; the increasing US involvement in the defence of South Vietnam; and the continued probing of outer space.