Détente can be defined as the period of improved relations between the United States and
the Soviet Union beginning in 1971. The word detente comes from the French word meaning
“release from tension,” and was an important period of history because it temporarily
alleviated risks of an international nuclear war. At this point in time, the Cold War between
the two blocs had been ongoing for over twenty years and both sides were building nuclear
arsenals. The US had also been involved in the Vietnam War since 1955, which caused
substantial economic and human loss. The Americans’ need to leave the war and attain
peace in the east is one of the reasons that detente was possible. Other factors were the
USSR’s need for food and technology that could be provided to them by the West, the US
and USSR’s parity in nuclear weaponry, and Germany’s new eastern policy of reconciliation,
led by new chancellor Willy Brandt.
Detente is said to have been recognised officially when Richard Nixon, the US president,
visited Moscow in May 1972, making him the first American president to do so. Nixon met
Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Soviet Union, and the two signed various treaties
including the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT). SALT allowed the two blocs to form
agreements on space exploration and the sale of American grain to the USSR. It also placed
a limit on the number of nuclear missiles each country could have, but did not prevent the
destruction of old ones and the creation of new, improved weapons. It is still debated about
when detente officially started: many argue that international relations warmed earlier, during
former Soviet General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev’s 1959 visit to the US, or the resolution
of the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, a crisis which is considered the closest that the cold war
came to escalating to a nuclear war.
One of the reasons the detente was possible was due to the US withdrawing from the
Vietnam war. This war was fought between North Vietnam, supported by China and the
USSR, and South Vietnam, supported by American troops. Therefore, in order to attain
peace, the US first had to have a detente with China, which had the most influence in the
North. In February 1972, Nixon travelled to Beijing to meet with Chinese Premier Chou En-
Lai and open relations. DUe to the growing rift between China and the USSR, it was in the
soviets’ best interest to have a detente with the USA, rather than face the combined
antagonism of a Chinese and American alliance.
Another factor contributing to detente was the Soviet Union’s lack of food and technology,
and their need for trade with the west. The Soviets had been harvesting very little food and
selling most of it in order to afford technology. Since the establishment of the Soviet Union,
their agricultural plans had been failing, primarily due to the collectivisation of land which
impacted farmers. THey were also mostly growing plants for industry rather than for
agriculture, leaving A large percentage of the population was hungry and requiring food. On
the other hand, in the west, countries like the US and france were producing too much food.
It was cheaper for the US to sell this food rather than lower production, therefore both
countries profited from this trade. The ussr also required more technology such as
computers, which was provided to them once again by the uSA. This mutually beneficial
trade was another motivation for detente to be implemented.
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