sentences:  It was to no avail; shortly after his July summit with Bush and 8 days after the end of Matlock's term, Gorbachev was briefly removed from power by the August 1991 coup.The Soviet Union collapsed by the end of 1991, just a few months after Matlock, having fulfilled his ambition when he joined the Foreign Service, retired from a diplomatic career spanning 35 years.After retirement from the Foreign Service, Matlock began work on his "magnum opus", "Autopsy on an Empire