[Non-examinable] US-Soviet relations in 1960s-1970s

• PERIOD OF DÉTENTE

  • After Vietnam War, relations between USA & USSR entered a period of détente in the late 1960s-early 1970s.

  • Instead of focusing on confrontation, the superpowers recognised USA & USSR’s right to co-exist

  • Both superpowers accepted and respected each others’ sphere of

  influence & tried to cooperate with one another

  • seen as a way to manage superpower relations without risking an all-out war

  • During the early-mid 1970s, Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signed various treaties to:

  1. Improve political relations
  2. Limit number of nuclear arms
  3. Foster economic cooperation
• Why Detente? - US

  • Keen to avoid triggering a nuclear war after Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.

  • Detente allowed Nixon to focus on ending the war in Vietnam, which was very unpopular and draining USA’s resources
• Why Detente? - USSR

  • Sino-Soviet Split made Brezhnev worried that USSR would be isolated, so he was keen to have good relations with the USA.

  • USSR was having economic problems and wanted to reduce spending on unnecessary conflicts.
• EXAMPLES OF DETENTE

  • Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) held in Moscow 1972. Agreed to limit and later reduce the number of nuclear weapons. Each side allowed to use spy satellites to check if other side had followed limits in the treaty
  • Signed Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in May 1972 and started talk for SALT II treaty
  • Apollo-Soyuz Test Project in 1975 where a US and Soviet spacecraft docked in space and exchanged a handshake
  • Nixon was the first US President to visit Communist China in 1972
  • The US table tennis team invited to visit China and play against the Chinese team
• DECLINE OF DETENTE

  Leadership changes affected US-Soviet relationship

  • Nixon stepped down in 1974

  • President Jimmy Carter, elected in 1977, stopped détente as he was strongly against communism & USSR human rights violations. He criticized USSR for supplying weapons to allies in Angola and Ethiopia, escalating the conflict

  • Brezhnev countered that USA was doing the same in Central &

  South America and in South Africa
• END OF DETENTE

  • Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan : A civil war broke out in Afghanistan in 1979. USSR sent troops to support the pro-Soviet government against the rebels

  • The Afghan War would drain USSR’s resources for the next 10 years.

  • USSR was criticised by the international community

  • In 1979, Carter cancelled ongoing arms limitation talks and imposed

  embargos on grain & technology on USSR

  • The next USA President Ronald Reagan & British PM Thatcher also adopted a more confrontational stance against the USSR