Detente Detente means relaxing or easing. Detente was a temporal relaxation in international affairs during the Cold War.

It was hoped that the new relationship would herald a permanent improvement in relations between the US and the Soviet Union, but differences in outlook led to an increasing number of conflicts. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 effectively closed that chapter of the Cold War. The activities of President Ronald Reagan after his election in 1980, returned tensions to a higher pitch. Soviet relations with the People's Republic of China Detente could probably not have taken place, and certainly wouldn't have assumed the form that it did, without the rift that developed between the world's two primary communist regimes the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China (PRC). The two communist powers had never been especially close. Joseph Stalin had not backed Mao Zedong against the nationalists during World War II, and his insistence that China pay cash for weapons during the Korean War was a source of grievance. Over time, the Soviets decided that Mao was unreliable and that China was a potential rival. When they withdrew their support of China's nuclear weapons program, the Chinese proceeded on their own, exploding their first atomic bomb in 1964 and a hydrogen bomb in 1967. By the late 1960s, a million Soviet troops faced a million Chinese troops across the Ussuri River, the border between these two countries. The falling out did not go unnoticed in Washington. President Richard Nixon, concluded that the tension between the SU and China held promise for the US - despite the origins of his political career in virulent anti-communist activities. His national security advisor, Henry Kissinger, took the same view. Secret back channels of communications were opened, sending word to the Chinese that the US was interested in ending its policy of attempting to politically isolate the PRC. SALT I (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) negotiations were being held in early 1970 with the Soviets while secret talks were going on with the Chinese. Nixon was attempting the Vietnamization of the Vietnam War, which meant withdrawing American troops and replacing them in combat with South Vietnamese. Suddenly, at the end of April, Nixon intensified the conflict by bombing Cambodia to fight the North Vietnamese supported Khmer Rouge guerrillas. The Chinese were publicly indignant and privately cancelled the next round of talks. However, like the Americans, some Chinese leaders saw the advantages of rapprochement. Continued contact prevailed. Cold War Superpowers Breakthrough In April 1971, the breakthrough began. The US lifted its trade embargo with China, which had been in place since the start of the Korean War. In that same month, amino incident occurred in Japan, where the World Table Tennis Championships were taking place. American tennis-table athletes became the first from their country to be officially welcomed in decades. With the ice seemingly broken, Kissinger secretly visited Beijing in July 1971 and met Mao and Zhou Enlai. Vietnam and T aiwan were discussed. To advance the process, the Chinese invited Nixon to visit, which he did in Feb 1972. The prospect of improved relations between its two most formidable enemies caused concern in the Kremlin. A summit between Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev was scheduled, and results from SALT I were finally reached. Nixon and Brezhnev signed agreements that curbed the arms race for the first time. Four days later, the two men signed the Basic Principles of Relations between the United States and the USSR. The agreement called for a peaceful coexistence, avoidance of military confrontations, and no claims of spheres of influence.

In a move designed to win approval from American farmers, Nixon suggested to the Soviets that they purchase American grain. A month later, a purchase of 200 million bushels of wheat was negotiated. Vietnam War settlement A settlement to the Vietnam War was one of Nixon's objectives when he established Detente, but it proved a difficult objective. After negotiations and violence, the Paris Accords were signed in 1973. Two months later, the last American soldiers departed from Vietnam. An analog of Detente was being pursued by West Germany at the same time. After Social Democrat Willy Brandt came to power in 1969, West Germany began a policy of Ostpolitik, with the objective of normalizing relations with East Germany. Brandt visited East Germany and signed a non-aggression pact with Moscow as well as a treaty with Poland. In December 1972, the two German states signed a treaty of mutual recognition. US and Soviet Negotiations In June 1973, Brezhnev visited the US for a second summit with Nixon. He warned Nixon that America's perceived bias in favor of Israel over Arab interests was putting a strain on detente in the Middle East. When the October War broke out, it nearly derailed Detente. Both superpowers aided their allies in the region and for a while, nuclear confrontation appeared to be a real possibility. Domestic opposition to Detente grew in 1973. Nixon resigns in 1974, and Gerald Ford, his successor, is committed to Detente. A new arms limitation treaty was reached in principle with Brezhnev in a meeting. In the summer of 1975, after more than two years of discussion, representatives from Canada, the United States, and 33 European countries met in Helsinki, Finland, to sign an agreement. The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe consisted of three baskets. The first consisted of practical measures regarding security. Existing borders were confirmed and the parties pledged peaceful settlements of disputes. The second dealt with cooperation in terms of trade, culture, science and industry. The third addressed humanitarian concerns and called for free movement of peoples and circulation of ideas. The SU were happy wight the first two and considered the third a public relations exercise, which they could ignore within their own borders. SALT II finally produced an accord and Jimmy Carter presented it to the Senate for approval, but opposition delayed ratification. The atmosphere turned very chilly after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan that year, and Carter asked the Senate to suspend consideration until a more opportune time. That time never came. When Carter was succeeded by Ronald Reagan, the presidency passed to someone who had never approved of the concept of Detente and who brought about the largest peacetime military buildup in the nation's history during his first years in office. The late 1970s had witnessed the triumph of Marxist governments in Angola and Nicaragua. El Salvador seemed to follow. The US had been humiliated in the Vietnam War, and the Soviets seemed secure in their unrelenting mission to conquer Afghanistan.