No, don't expect a re-start of the Cold War, but May 2013 was a rough month for foreign relations between the U.S. and Russia.

And the month had it all. Both sides accused each other of recruiting spies, the U.S. suggested Russia might have had intel that could have impacted the Boston Marathon bombing, and the Secretary of State doesn't want Russia installing missiles in war-torn Syria.

Fifty years ago that all would've had Americans making sure the bomb shelters were well stocked. Today? Well, it's all important, but nobody's got a finger on the red button. Read more here.

When U.S. President Barack Obama and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto met in Mexico City earlier this month, what do you think they talked about? Immigration? Trade?

Right on both counts.

Read here for a brief look at the results of the presidential summit.

If you've been following this column, you know I've been doing a series on U.S.-Mexican foreign relations. Here is the third in the series, highlighting the years 1920-1945.

That quarter century saw the United States change from a policy of intervention to that of a "good neighbor" to Mexico and the rest of Latin America. Of course, the coming second world war had something to do with that.

Mexico became a solid ally of the U.S. in the war, and it benefited from American lend-lease and war production. Read more here.

The unusual photo at right is of a couple of Curtiss R2 biplanes that the U.S. Army took into Mexico in 1916 as it tried to hunt down revolutionary Pancho Villa.

The expedition was part of extended U.S. irritation with Mexico during a time when European powers were trying to exploit enmity between the North American countries for their own political gain.

Read more in the second installment of a series on U.S.-Mexican foreign relations.

Photo courtesy National Museum of the U.S. Air Force