Détente

Détente(/deɪˈtɑːnt/day-TAHNT,alsoUK:/ˈdeɪtɒnt/DAY-tont^[1]^[2];Frenchfor 'relaxation',French pronunciation:[detɑ̃t])^[3]is the relaxation of strained relations, especially political ones, through verbal communication. The diplomacy term originates from around 1912, whenFranceandGermanytried unsuccessfully to reduce tensions.^[4]

The term is often used to refer to a period of general easing of geopolitical tensions between theSoviet Unionand theUnited Statesduring theCold War.Détentebegan in 1969 as a core element of the foreign policy of U.S. presidentRichard Nixon.In an effort to avoid an escalation of conflict with theEastern Bloc,theNixon administrationpromoted greater dialogue with the Soviet government in order to facilitate negotiations over arms control and other bilateral agreements.^[5]Détentewas known inRussianasразрядка(razryadka), loosely meaning "relaxation of tension".

History

Cold War

While the recognized era ofdétenteformally began under theRichard Nixon presidency,there were prior instances of relationship relaxation between the United States and Soviet Union during the Cold War. Following theCuban Missile Crisisin 1962, both the United States and Soviet Union agreed to install a direct hotline between Washington and Moscow, colloquially known asthe red telephone.The hotline enabled leaders of both countries to communicate rapidly in the event of another potentially catastrophic confrontation.^{[citation needed]}

The period ofdétentein the Cold War saw the ratification of major disarmament treaties such as theAnti-Ballistic Missile Treatyand the creation of more symbolic pacts such as theHelsinki Accords.An ongoing debate among historians exists as to how successful thedétenteperiod was in achieving peace.^[6]^[7]

Détenteis considered to have ended after theSoviet intervention in Afghanistanin 1979, which led to the U.S.'boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics.Ronald Reagan'selection as president in 1980,based in large part on an anti-détentecampaign, induced a period of rising tension.^[8]In his first press conference, Reagan claimed that the U.S.'s pursuit ofdétentehad been used by the Soviet Union to further its interests.^[9]

Relations had been continued to increasingly sour through theunrest in Poland,the U.S.'s withdrawal from theSALT IIarms treaty, and theNATO Able Archer exercise.^[10]^[11]

In response to the heightening tensions, U.S. secretary of stateGeorge P. Shultzshifted theRonald Reagan administration's foreign policy towards another period of de-escalation with the Soviet Union especially followingMikhail Gorbachevcoming to power. During Gorbachev's leadership, dialogue over theSTARTarms reduction treaty meaningfully progressed. Diplomatic overtures were continued by the succeedingBush administration,including the ratification of the START treaty, up until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. This period of a renewed de-escalation from 1983 to 1991 is sometimes referred to as the second period ofdétente.^[12]^[13]

According to Eric Grynaviski, "Soviet and U.S. decision-makers had two very different understandings about whatdétentemeant "while simultaneously holding" an inaccurate belief that both sides shared principles and expectations for future behaviour. "^[14]

Summits and treaties

Alexei KosyginandLyndon B. Johnsonat theGlassboro Summit Conferencein 1967

BeforeRichard Nixonbecame president, the foundations ofdétentewere developed through multilateral arms-limitation treaties in the early to middle 1960s. These included the August 1963Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty,the January 1967Outer Space Treaty,and the July 1968Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.Historical developments such as the Cuban Missile Crisis and technological advancements such as the development of theintercontinental ballistic missile(ICBM) spurred these agreements.^[15]

When Nixon came into office in 1969, several importantdétentetreaties were developed. The Political Consultative Committee of theWarsaw Pactsent an offer to the U.S. and the rest of the West that urged a summit on "security and cooperation in Europe"^{[This quote needs a citation]}to be held. The West agreed, and theStrategic Arms Limitation Talksbegan towards actual limits on the nuclear capabilities of both superpowers, which ultimately led to the signing of theSALT Itreaty in 1972. It limited each power's nuclear arsenals but was quickly rendered outdated as a result of the development ofMIRVs.Also in 1972, theBiological Weapons Conventionand theAnti-Ballistic Missile Treatywere concluded, and talks on SALT II began the same year. TheWashington Summit of 1973further advanced mutual and international relations through discussion of diplomatic cooperation and continued discussion regarding limitations on nuclear weaponry.^{[citation needed]}

In 1975, theConference on Security and Cooperation in Europe(CSCE) met and produced theHelsinki Accords,a wide-ranging series of agreements on economic, political, andhuman rightsissues. The CSCE was initiated by the Soviet Union and involved 35 states throughout Europe.^[16]One of the most prevalent issues after the conference was the question of human rights violations in the Soviet Union. TheSoviet Constitutiondirectly violated theDeclaration of Human Rightsof theUnited Nations,and that issue became a prominent point of separation between the United States and the Soviet Union.^[17]

TheJimmy Carter administrationhad been supporting human rights groups inside the Soviet Union, andLeonid Brezhnevaccused the US of interference in other countries' internal affairs.^[17]That prompted intense discussion of whether or not other nations may interfere if basic human rights, such as freedom of speech and religion, are violated. This basic disagreement between the superpowers, a democracy, and aone-party state,did not allow that issue to be reconciled. Furthermore, the Soviets proceeded to defend their internal policies on human rights by attacking American support of South Africa, Chile, and other countries that were known to violate many of the same human rights.^[17]

In July 1975, theApollo–Soyuz Test Project(ASTP) became the first international space mission; three American astronauts and two Soviet cosmonauts docked their spacecraft and conducted joint experiments. The mission had been preceded by five years of political negotiation and technical co-operation, including exchanges of American and Soviet engineers between both countries' space centres.^{[citation needed]}

Trade relations between both blocs increased substantially during the era ofdétente.Most significant were the vast shipments of grain that were sent from the West to the Soviet Union each year and helped to make up for the failure of thekolkhoz,the Sovietcollective farms.^{[citation needed]}

At the same time, theJackson–Vanik amendment,signed into law by U.S. presidentGerald Fordon 3 January 1975 after a unanimous vote by both houses of theU.S. Congress,was designed to leverage trade relations between the Americans and the Soviets. It linked U.S. trade to improvements in human rights in the Soviet Union, particularly by allowingrefuseniksto emigrate. It also added to themost favoured nationstatus a clause that no country that resisted emigration could be awarded that status, which provided a method to linkgeopoliticsto human rights.^[18]

End of Vietnam War

Nixon and hisnational security advisor,Henry Kissinger,moved towarddétentewith theSoviet Unionin the early 1970s. They hoped, in return, for Soviets to help the U.S. extricate or remove itself from Vietnam. People then started to notice the consciousness with which US politicians started to act.^[19]

Strategic Arms Limitations Talks

Nixon andBrezhnevsigned an ABM treaty in Moscow on 26 May 1972 as well asSALT I,the Interim Agreement, which temporarily capped the number of strategic arms (MIRVs, SLBMs, and ICBMs). That was a show ofdétentemilitarily since an expansion of nuclear ballistic arms had started to occur.^[20]

The goal of Nixon andKissingerwas to use arms control to promote a much broader policy ofdétente,which could then allow the resolution of other urgent problems through what Nixon called "linkage." David Tal argued:^[21]

The linkage between strategic arms limitations and outstanding issues such as the Middle East, Berlin and, foremost, Vietnam thus became central to Nixon's and Kissinger's policy ofdétente.Through employment of linkage, they hoped to change the nature and course of U.S. foreign policy, including U.S. nuclear disarmament and arms control policy, and to separate them from those practiced by Nixon's predecessors. They also intended, through linkage, to make U.S. arms control policy part ofdétente.... His policy of linkage had in fact failed. It failed mainly because it was based on flawed assumptions and false premises, the foremost of which was that the Soviet Union wanted strategic arms limitation agreement much more than the United States did.

Apollo–Soyuz handshake

A significant example of an event contributing todétentewas the handshake that took place in space. In July 1975, the first Soviet-American joint space flight was conducted, the ASTP.^[22]Its primary goal was the creation of an international docking system, which would allow two different spacecraft to join in orbit. That would allow both crews on board to collaborate on space exploration.^[23]The project marked the end of theSpace Race,which had started in 1957 with the launch ofSputnik 1,and allowed tensions between the Americans and the Soviets to decrease significantly.^[24]

Concurrent conflicts

As direct relations thawed, increased tensions continued between both superpowers through theirproxies,especially in theThird World.Conflicts inSouth Asiaand theMiddle Eastin 1973 saw the Soviet Union and the U.S. backing their respective surrogates, such as in Afghanistan, with war material and diplomatic posturing. InLatin America,the U.S. continued to block anyleft-wingelectoral shifts in the region by supporting unpopularright-wing military coupsand military dictatorships. Meanwhile, there were also many communist or left-wingguerrillasaround the region, which were militarily and economically backed by the Soviet Union, China and Cuba.^{[citation needed]}

During much of the earlydétenteperiod, theVietnam Warcontinued to rage. Both sides still mistrusted each other, and the potential fornuclear warremained constant, notably during the 1973Yom Kippur Warwhen the U.S. raised its alert level toDEFCON3, the highest since the Cuban Missile Crisis.^[25]

Both sides continued aiming thousands of nuclear warheads atopintercontinental ballistic missiles(ICBMs) at each other's cities, maintaining submarines with long-range nuclear weapon capability (submarine-launched ballistic missiles,or SLBMs) in the world's oceans, keeping hundreds of nuclear-armed aircraft on constant alert, and guarding contentious borders inKoreaandEuropewith large ground forces.Espionageefforts remained a high priority, anddefectors,reconnaissance satellites,and signal intercepts measured each other's intentions to try to gain a strategic advantage.^{[citation needed]}

Reignited tensions and the end of the firstdétente

The 1979Soviet invasion of Afghanistan,carried out in an attempt to shore up a struggling pro-Soviet regime, led to harsh international criticisms, and a boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics, held in Moscow. U.S. presidentJimmy Carterboosted the budget of theU.S. Department of Defenseand began financial aid to the office of Pakistan presidentMuhammad Zia-ul-Haq,who, in turn, subsidized the anti-Soviet radical Islamist group ofAfghan mujahideenfighters.^[26]

Another contributing factor in the decline in the popularity ofdétenteas a desirable U.S. policy was theinter-service rivalrybetween the U.S. State Department and Department of Defense. From 1973 to 1977, there were three secretaries worth mentioning:Elliot Richardson,James Schlesinger,andDonald Rumsfeld.Schlesinger's tenure as secretary of defense was plagued by notably poor relations with Kissinger, one of the most prominent advocates ofdétentein the U.S.^[27]Their poor working relationship bled into their professional relationship, and policy clashes would increasingly occur. They ultimately resulted in Schlesinger's dismissal in 1975. However, his replacement, Rumsfeld, had similar issues with Kissinger although their disagreements stemmed more from domestic resistance todétente.^[28]As a result, clashes on policy continued between the State and the Defense Departments. Rumsfeld thought that Kissinger was too complacent about the growing Soviet strength. Although Rumsfeld largely agreed with Kissinger's stance that the U.S. held military superiority over the Soviet Union, he argued that Kissinger's public optimism would prevent Congress from allowing the Defense Department the funds thatRumsfeldbelieved were required to maintain the favorable gap between the US and the Soviets. Rumsfeld responded by regularly presenting a morealarmistview of the superior strength of the Soviets.^{[citation needed]}

In response to the stranglehold of influence by Kissinger in the Nixon and Ford administrations and the later decline in influence over foreign policy by the Department of Defense, Richardson, Schlesinger, and Rumsfeld all used the growing antipathy in the U.S. for the Soviet Union to undermine Kissinger's attempts to achieve a comprehensive arms reduction treaty. That helped to portray the entire notion ofdétenteas an untenable policy.^[29]

The 1980 U.S. presidential election saw Reagan elected on a platform opposed to the concessions ofdétente.Negotiations on SALT II were abandoned as a result. However, during the later years of his presidency, Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev pursued a policy that was considered to bedétente.^[30]^[31]However, theReagan administrationtalked about a "winnable" nuclear war and led to the creation of theStrategic Defense Initiativeand theThird Worldpolicy of funding irregular and paramilitarydeath squadsinCentral America,sub-Saharan Africa,Cambodia,and Afghanistan.^[5]

Cuban thaw

On 17 December 2014, U.S. presidentBarack Obamaand Cuba presidentRaúl Castroresolved to restore diplomatic relations between Cuba and the U.S. The restoration agreement had been negotiated in secret in the preceding months. The negotiations were facilitated byPope Francisand hosted mostly by the Canadian government, which had warmer relations with Cuba at that time. Meetings were held in both Canada and the Vatican City.^[32]The agreement would see some U.S. travel restrictions lifted, fewer restrictions on remittances, greater access to the Cuban financial system for U.S. banks, and the reopening of theU.S. embassy in Havanaand the Cuban embassy in Washington, which both closed in 1961 after the breakup of diplomatic relations as a result of Cuba's alliance with the Soviet Union.^[33]

On 14 April 2015, theObama administrationannounced the removal of Cuba from theState Sponsors of Terrorismlist.^[34]Cuba was officially removed from the list on 29 May 2015. On 20 July 2015, the Cuban and U.S. interest sections in Washington and Havana were upgraded to embassies. On 20 March 2016, Obama became the first U.S. president to visitCubasinceCalvin Coolidgevisited in 1928.^[35]In 2017,Donald Trump,Obama's successor, stated that he was "canceling" the Obama administration's deals with Cuba, while also expressing that a new deal could be negotiated between the Cuban and U.S. governments.^[36]

References

^"detente".Dictionary.com Unabridged(Online). n.d.Retrieved22 July2024.
^"détente".Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English.Longman.Archivedfrom the original on 24 November 2017.Retrieved22 July2024.
^"détente – traduction".Dictionnaire Français-Anglais WordReference.com(in French).
^Keiger 1983,pp. 69–70.
^^a ^bHunt 2015,pp. 269–274.
^"The Rise and Fall of Détente, Professor Branislav L. Slantchev, Department of Political Science, University of California – San Diego 2014"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 23 October 2014.Retrieved22 July2014.
^Nuti 2008,p. 53.
^"Ronald Reagan, radio broadcast on August 7th, 1978"(PDF).Retrieved22 July2014.
^"Ronald Reagan. January 29, 1981 press conference".Presidency.ucsb.edu. 29 January 1981.Retrieved22 July2014.
^"Detente Wanes as Soviets Quarantine Satellites from Polish Fever".Washington Post.19 October 1980.
^Simes 1980,p.^{[page needed]}.
^Cannon, Lou (29 May 1988)."Reagan, Gorbachev Two Paths to Detente".Washington Post.
^"The Cold War Heats up – New Documents Reveal the" Able Archer "War Scare of 1983".Military History Now.20 May 2013.
^Grynaviski 2014,p. 49.
^"Limited or Partial Test Ban Treaty (LTBT/PTBT)".Nuclear Museum.Retrieved4 May2023.
^Lapennal 1977,p. 1.
^^a ^b ^cLapennal 1977,pp. 14–15.
^Kissinger 1995,p.^{[page needed]}.
^Rhodes 2008,p. 61.
^Rhodes 2008,p. 112.
^Tal 2013,pp. 1091–1092.
^"NASA – Handshake in Space".Nasa.gov. 1 March 2010. Archived fromthe originalon 1 April 2016.Retrieved30 September2018.
^Morgan, Kellie (15 July 2015)."Celebrating historic handshake in space, 40 years later".CNN.Retrieved30 September2018.
^Samuels 2005,p. 669.
^"The Long Arm of the October War" History News Network, 12 September 2013.
^Garthoff 1985,p.^{[page needed]}.
^Poole 2015,p. viii.
^Poole 2015,p. 23.
^Poole 2015.
^"Reagan, Gorbachev two paths of Détente".Washington Post.Washington Post, 29 May 1988. 29 May 1988.
^Norman Podhoretz (January 1984)."The First Term: The Reagan Road to Détente".Foreign Affairs.63(America and the World 1984).
^Nadeau, Barbie Latza (17 December 2014)."The Pope's Diplomatic Miracle: Ending the U.S.-Cuba Cold War".The Daily Beast.Retrieved27 February2023.
^Schwartz, Felicia (20 July 2015)."As Embassies Open, a Further Thaw in Cuban-U. S. ties Faces Hurdles in Congress".WSJ.Retrieved27 February2023.
^"FACT SHEET: Charting a New Course on Cuba".whitehouse.gov.17 December 2014.Retrieved27 February2023.
^Michaels, Allison (21 March 2016)."The Last Time a President Visited Cuba Was 1928. It Was a Very Big Deal Back Then, Too".The Washington Post.Archived fromthe originalon 24 March 2016.Retrieved22 July2023.
^"Trump rolls back parts of what he calls 'terrible' Obama Cuba policy".Reuters.16 June 2017.Retrieved27 February2023.

Works cited

Garthoff, Raymond L. (1985).Detente and Confrontation: American-Soviet Relations From Nixon to Reagan.The Brookings Institution.ISBN 978-0-8157-3044-6.
Grynaviski, Eric (2014).Constructive Illusions: Misperceiving the Origins of International Cooperation.Cornell University Press.ISBN 978-0-8014-5206-2.JSTOR 10.7591/j.ctt1287f2s.
Hunt, Michael (2015).The World Transformed: 1945 to the Present: A Documentary Reader.New York, NY: Oxford University Press.ISBN 978-0-19-937103-7.OCLC 870439207.
Keiger, John F. V. (1983).France and the Origins of the First World War.ISBN 9781349172092.
Kissinger, Henry(1995).Diplomacy.Simon and Schuster.ISBN 0-671-51099-1.OCLC 32350622.
Lapennal, Ivo (1977).Human Rights: Soviet Theory and Practice, Helsinki and International Law.Eastern Press.
Nuti, Leopoldo (2008).The Crisis of Détente in Europe.Taylor & Francis.ISBN 9780203887165.
Poole, Walter S. (2015).The Decline of Détente: Elliot Richardson, James Schlesinger, and Donald Rumsfeld 1973-1977(PDF).Cold War Foreign Policy Series: Special Study 7. Historical Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense.
Rhodes, Richard (2008).Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race.Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group.ISBN 978-0-375-71394-1.
Samuels, Richard J., ed. (2005).Encyclopedia of United States National Security.Vol. 1.SAGE Publications.ISBN 978-0-7619-2927-7.
Simes, Dimitri K. (1980). "The Death of Detente?".International Security.5(1): 3–25.doi:10.2307/2538471.JSTOR 2538471.S2CID 154098316.
Tal, David (2013).""Absolutes" and "Stages" in the Making and Application of Nixon's SALT Policy ".Diplomatic History.37(5): 1090–1116.doi:10.1093/dh/dht064.

v t e Presidency of Richard Nixon(1969–1974)
Timeline	Transition First inauguration "Bring Us Together" Second inauguration Silent majority 1970 Lincoln Memorial visit 1970 SOTU Address 1971 SOTU Address 1972 SOTU Address 1973 SOTU Address 1974 SOTU Address VP confirmation of Gerald Ford Wilson desk Judicial appointments Supreme Court controversies Executive Orders Presidential Proclamations
Foreign policy	International trips Nixon Doctrine Vietnam War Cambodian bombing Paris Peace Accords "Peace with Honor" Vietnamization Cold War period Linkage policy Tar Baby option 1972 visit to China Shanghai Communiqué 1973 Chilean coup d'état Détente 1972 Moscow Summit Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty SALT I Treaty Washington Summit Prevention of Nuclear War Agreement Threshold Test Ban Treaty Operation CHAOS Space exploration
Domestic policy	Family Assistance Plan Revised Philadelphia Plan Minority Business Development Agency Native American policy Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act Education Amendments of 1972 Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants Title IX Rehabilitation Act of 1973 Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974 Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972 National Cancer Act of 1971 End Stage Renal Disease Program Supplemental Security Income Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973 Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act Shafer Commission War on drugs Drug Enforcement Administration Cannabis policy Federal Contested Elections Act Federal Election Campaign Act 1970 VRA Amendments District of Columbia Home Rule Act Legislative Reorganization Act of 1970 Congressional Research Service
Economic policy	Bank Secrecy Act Fair Credit Reporting Act National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1970 Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1973 Nixon shock Economic Stabilization Act of 1970 Smithsonian Agreement Occupational Safety and Health Act National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Occupational Safety and Health Administration Permissible exposure limit U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission Consumer Product Safety Act Lead-Based Paint Poisoning Prevention Act Poison Prevention Packaging Act of 1970 Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act Securities Investor Protection Act Securities Investor Protection Corporation Tax Reform Act of 1969 Alternative minimum tax Revenue Act of 1971 Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 Agricultural Act of 1970 Farm Credit Act of 1971 Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act of 1972 Agriculture and Consumer Protection Act of 1973 Federal Energy Administration Emergency Petroleum Allocation Act Emergency Daylight Saving Time Energy Conservation Act Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act
Environmental policy	Council on Environmental Quality Environmental Quality Improvement Act National Environmental Policy Act Environmental Protection Agency Clean Air Amendments of 1970 Clean Water Act Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act National Ambient Air Quality Standards National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants New Source Performance Standards Noise Control Act Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1970 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Coastal Zone Management Act Coastal Zone Management Program Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement Marine Mammal Protection Act Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act of 1972 Endangered Species Act of 1969 Endangered Species Act of 1973 Oil Pollution Act of 1973 Water Resources Development Act of 1974
Watergate	Timeline Operation Sandwedge Operation Gemstone Saturday Night Massacre CRP White House Plumbers Watergate Seven Enemies List list of opponents White House tapes United States v. Nixon(1974) Senate Watergate Committee impeachment process Resignation Pardon
← Johnson administration Ford administration →

Authority control databases
National	Germany Czech Republic
Other	NARA