Detente was a period during the Cold War marked by decreasing tensions between the Soviet Union and United States between the late sixties and late seventies. Nixon was elected in 1969 and his foreign policy helped facilitate the softening of relations between the two. In 1972, Nixon made the historic visit into communist China that marked an era of new foreign relations for China. This move encouraged the Soviets to take similar steps so as not to be left out in these emerging international conversations. In 1972, Nixon went to Moscow to meet with the secretary general Brezhnev in an equally momentous meeting between the two superpowers. It would benefit both for nuclear competition to be lessened as the arms race was draining serious funding from both countries and causing stress worldwide as well, for a nuclear war would have widespread repercussions. The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks lead to the Antiballistic Missile Treaty in 1972 that did achieve in setting a cap on the number of IBM's that could be produced.
Sadly this progress was not everlasting and by the end of the seventies detente seemed not to be working. A second SALT negotiation was proposed, but neither country was able to ratify it, leaving both countries still following regulations from the first negation, ending the momentum in arms limitation. With Nixon out of office, with Carter's different vision for detente, with increasing public dissatisfaction with progress, it became clear that the Cold War may not end as easily as expected. In 1979 the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan and President Carter's response signaled an end to detente. It was not until the eighties when Gorbachev came to power in the Soviet Union with his progressive goals that discussion of disarmament and limitation of intermediate-range missiles began again.
Detente was this idea of trying to resolve the tension between the US and the USSR. However the American people did push back on the idea of detente. The american people saw that people in the USSR were being treated unfairly because they did not receive basic rights. The American people saw that the USSR were not giving their people the right to speak up. This caused an issue with the Americans where they believed that the US should help create an international law where people should be able to get basic human rights. The Americans believed that this needed to changed because the Americans kept preaching about how people should be able to have a say in their government. When the government starts to look at this they believe that they agreed with most Americans they they are fighting for freedom yet the world is still suffering with these issues of basic freedoms for people. The USSR did not like this idea however they were able to change Soviet minds by giving them the land. The US believe that that sacrifice was for the greater good as long as people in the USSR were able to get basic human rights.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to me how they had 2nd SALT treaty. I only thought there was ever one treaty as they didn't talk about that last year in CWI. Since it was time when the Soviets and Americans were desperate to avoid MAD it was a good idea for that both came to together. I'm pretty sure that this was probably the first time both the Soviets and Americans agreed on something since WW2.
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