Détente

Détente means a relaxing of tension. In the 1970s, the USA and the USSR tried to improve relations.

Causes:

• Fear: the Cuban Missile Crisis had shown how close the world came to nuclear war.
• Cost: the arms race was hugely expensive, and the USA was also paying for the war in Vietnam.
• The Soviet economy was struggling, and the USSR wanted Western technology and grain.
• China: relations between the USSR and China had broken down, and the US President, Nixon, visited China in 1972. The USSR did not want the USA and China to become allies.

In 1972, Nixon and Brezhnev signed the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT 1) in Moscow.

• The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty limited each side's systems for shooting down incoming missiles.
• An interim agreement froze the numbers of each side's long-range missiles for five years.

Significance: this was the first agreement to limit the superpowers' nuclear weapons. It did not reduce them, but it slowed the arms race, and built trust.

In 1975, 35 countries, including the USA, the USSR and most of Europe, signed the Helsinki Accords. They agreed on three areas:

• Security: Europe's borders, including the division of Germany, were accepted.
• Co-operation: in trade, science and technology.
• Human rights: every country promised to respect them, including freedom of speech and freedom to travel.

Significance: the West accepted Soviet control of Eastern Europe, which the USSR had long wanted. But the USSR did not keep its human rights promises, which later caused friction.

In 1979, the US President, Carter, and Brezhnev signed SALT 2, which set further limits on nuclear weapons.

But in December 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. As a result, the US Senate never ratified (approved) SALT 2.

Significance: the collapse of SALT 2 marked the end of détente, and the beginning of what became known as the 'Second Cold War'.