The closing meeting of the third phase of the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe took place from the 30th of July to the 1st of August 1975. This event concluded two years of diplomatic negotiations known as the Helsinki Process.
Thirty-five participating states signed the Final Act at this gathering including all existing European countries except for Andorra and Hoxhaist Albania. The United States and Canada also participated in the signing alongside leaders seeking to improve détente between East and West.
The document was not binding because it lacked treaty status requiring parliamentary ratification. Henry Kissinger later told President Ford that the US never wanted the conference but went along with Europeans while calling the process meaningless.
A question about the Accords during the second presidential debate on October 6 led to an infamous gaffe where Ford claimed there was no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe. This blunder proved disastrous for his foreign-policy stature and helped defeat Gerald Ford during his re-election campaign.
Human rights activists inside the Soviet Union began using the accord to demand civil liberties despite official denial from Communist authorities. Groups like the Moscow Helsinki Group formed to appeal to these new provisions while Charter 77 emerged as another Czechoslovak initiative leveraging the agreement.