Attempts to reduce tension between East and West
Détente
After the scare of the Cuban Missile Crisis and then the humiliation of the Vietnam War, the 1970s saw the USA, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics - collection of states, also known as the Soviet Union. and China making an effort to improve relations. This led to a period known as détente, a word meaning the relaxing of tension.
What evidence was there that tensions between East and West were easing in the 1970s?
- The A competition between America and the USSR to build more destructive and a higher number of nuclear weapons. was expensive: sides began to realise that money for An explosive device used as a weapon. The most deadly and destructive weapon developed by humankind. would be better spent to improve living conditions at home.
- The new US President, Richard Nixon, knew the war in Vietnam needed to be brought to an end. (The USA would eventually leave Vietnam in 1974).
- The relationship between the USSR and China, the world’s most important A classless society where all property is owned publicly. nations, had soured. This was known as the References to China.-Soviet split. For the USA it meant it was easier to establish diplomatic relations with China. Nixon made a symbolically important visit to China in 1972, which showed that he was trying to improve relations with the communist Countries who have huge influence or strength, giving them significant global power., and subsequently the US dropped its objection to China joining the The successor to the League of Nations, the United Nations was established in 1945 as an international organisation designed to keep peace, uphold international law and set standards in human rights.. Nixon hoped that the Chinese would help push the North Vietnamese to a resolution in Vietnam.
- In 1972 The first of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, an agreement signed in 1972 by US President Richard Nixon and Soviet Union leader Leonid Brezhnev to begin to reduce the number of nuclear weapons owned by America and the Soviet Union. (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) was signed by Nixon and the Soviet leader, Leonid Brezhnev. The agreement restricted the number of ICBMs (Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles) both sides could have, but was criticised by some for not limiting the production of new nuclear weapons.
- In 1975 American American way of referring to someone who travels to space.astronauts and Soviet Soviet way of referring to someone who travels to space. met and symbolically shook hands in space.
- In 1975, the Helsinki Agreement was signed by 35 countries including the USA and the USSR. These countries were signing up to recognise the European borders established after World War Two as well as to some basic Basic rights and freedoms that every person should expect to have, eg freedom of speech such as The belief that humans have an absolute right to voice their opinion publicly without censorship or punishment.. This effectively meant that the Western Allies recognised Soviet control over Eastern Europe. It also meant that, after decades of communist A country ruled by someone who has complete authority., the Soviet Union had signed up to a basic human rights agreement.
The American astronaut Thomas Stafford (left), and the Russian cosmonaut Aleksey Leonov shaking hands in the connecting passage between APOLLO cabin and SOYOUZ cabin. This space encounter took place during an American-Soviet mission into space
So, where did it all go wrong?
- In 1977, a new US President, Jimmy Carter, entered the The official residence of the President of the United States, located in Washington DC.. Carter was a Political party in the United States. Democrats tend to hold a more liberal viewpoint on politics and society. and had a different view on the USA’s foreign relations and place in the world, and he criticised the USSR for its human rights abuses.
- Between 1977 and 1979 the USSR began to replace its out-of-date nuclear missiles in Eastern Europe with SS-20 missiles. These were a new type of battlefield nuclear weapon, leading many in the West to believe that the Soviets had not abandoned the idea of nuclear war or A policy or ideology that means a country wants to gain more territory. in Europe. The USA responded by developing A missile guided towards its target by a computer system. and deploying its own battlefield nuclear weapons to Europe.
- With the arms race apparently on again, and then the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, the US Congress refused to An agreement being officially agreed on by a country.The second of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. Although it was signed by US President Jimmy Carter and Soviet Union leader Leonid Brezhnev in 1979, it was not ratified by the US Senate following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. , a second agreement of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, because it as far as they could see the USSR had broken its commitment to limiting the creation of new nuclear weapons.