Richard Nixon and Detente

As tensions continued to augment profoundly throughout the latter half of the Cold War period, they brought forth a movement from a previous bipolar conflicting course, to one of a more multipolar nature. These tensions were now not only restricted to the Soviet Union and United states, but amongst multiple other nations of the globe. It became a general consensus that a notion of ‘peace’ was sought globally, hence, the emergence of détente. The nature of this idea in the short term conveyed itself to be an act of change for the conflicting nations, however, in the long term it proved to be a blatant continuity, ultimately acting as a ‘mechanism for domestic fortification’ which prompted a more divisive tone. It became apparent that by the prime 1970’s Cold War countries were now seeking a state of relaxation in political and international tension, détente, through measures of diplomacy and negotiation. Actions, influences and treaties such as the Helsinki Final Act of 1975, the establishment of SALT 1, the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty of 1972 and the Shanghai Communique of 1972 evidently help reinforce that the concept of détente brought a period focused on lessening the tensions of international relations and ultimately achieve political relation for the future of the Cold War, although the success and impact of this era is abhorred by many historians who have concluded that détente didn’t activate any positive changes to the cold war, and was conclusively a failure.

When Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980, he held a firm belief that détente should be abandoned and the problems of Communism be faced head on by his foreign policy. By the end of his second term as president, Reagan and his term in office would be remembered for furthering détente and influencing the peaceful collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the Soviet Union in 1991. Reagan's diplomatic strategy ultimately led to this end, but it was not inevitable. Tensions as they were throughout the Eighties could, at any time, prove too completely disrupt the groundwork for the fall of the Soviet Union.

The end of the Cold War can be credited to the actions of Ronald Reagan, Mikhail Gorbachev, and George Bush, as well as the breakup of communist satellite nations. Ronald Reagan with his increased spending in the defense sector instigated an arms race with the Soviet Union in an attempt to overwhelm the Soviet Union through military influence. However, the Soviet Union was unable to keep up with the arms race due to a weak and stagnating economy since building new weapons was costly. Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985 also introduced two new policies, Glasnost and Perestroika which ended political censorship and restructured the economy respectively. Glasnost allowed for the actions of the Soviet Union’s government to be publicly displayed and further reduced the appeal of communism. George Bush and Gorbachev both signed the START I and START II treaties which further reduced the number of nuclear warheads on both sides. The breakup of satellite states also contributed to the end of the cold war as the Soviet Union stated that they would not provide military help to the various communist governments. This eventually lead to the falling out of Communist parties in several

In the aftermath of World War II, tensions heightened between the two dominant powers: America and the USSR. The differences between the ideologies of the communist USSR and the capitalist United States led to a rapid deterioration in relations. The era between 1945, which marked the end of World War II, to 1991, when the Soviet Union dissolved, became known as the Cold War due to the fact that despite the lack of large scale conflict, both sides still feared a nuclear holocaust. Both the United States and the Soviet Union followed the military strategy of mutually assured destruction (MAD), meaning that neither side was willing to risk first attack lest the other nation retaliate massively . The fundamental tenet behind MAD that enabled it to serve as an effective deterrent was the idea of secondary strike capability. In essence, it was the ability of a nation to launch a counterattack and thereby ensure mutual destruction. Submarine launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) fulfilled this criteria admirably due to their ability to stay submerged for extended periods of time, the difficulty involved with locating a submarine, and their invulnerability to nuclear missile attacks when submerged. As a result, the United States attempted to corner this leg of the nuclear triad.

The definition of brinkmanship is that of, “a policy in which nations would go to the brink of war to make the others back down” (txbk 556). The definition of detente is, “a policy of lessening Cold War tensions” (txbk 549). In a domino effect things started to happen because of the other. Because of the protests during Vietnam War, the U.S. had a lot of ‘internal wounds’ to try and heal. Next, because of the ‘internal wounds’ that they had to heal, “the U.S. Began to back away from its policy of direct confrontation with the Soviet Union” (txbk 549). “Brinkmanship was replaced under Richard M. Nixon’s presidency” (txbk 549). One of the biggest reasons they thought about changing was because of the realpolitik policy; “dealing with other nations

In conclusion, President Nixon and Soviet leader Brezhnev developed detente from 1969 to 1979 because of the overwhelming fear of a possibility of a nuclear war. The cost of the arms race had taken an immense toll on the economic stability of both the United States and the Soviet Union, causes both leaders to adopt a more pragmatic view of the Cold War. The European countries involved in the Cold War were also taking steps to relax tensions between the countries divided by the iron curtain. This caused both nations to develop this period of detente and establish treaties through the Arms Limitations

On the the biggest issues during the cold war and so inevitably when establishing the Détente was the nuclear arms

During the Cold War there was a great deal of tension between the United States and the USSR. Both sides competed in arms race that is, equipping their arsenal of nuclear weaponry. Both sides realized how big of a danger these weapons possess and what destruction they might cause. People on both sides lived in a constant fear of nuclear war. For example, North Korea has developed an unpredictable character by testing and launching nuclear weapons. The same fear which was common during the Cold War is present today but on a bigger. Thus, in 1963 the Kennedy administration was able to pass the Limited Test Ban Treaty “which stopped above-ground nuclear tests” (Sagan, p.23). The 1968 Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) that countries agree to disarmament and arms limitation (Sagan, p.23). Without implementing these treatiesthe number of nuclear weapons would be very

After World War II, all countries were in political disorder; Stalin took advantage of that and helped the communist parties in the countries to win power. Stalin set up in 1947 Cominform which was an organisation to co-ordinate the various Communist Governments in Eastern Europe. Cominform ran meetings and sent out instruction to Communist governments about what the soviet union wanted them to do. Through Cominform the Eastern European countries all followed the same policies as the soviet union. Therefore, the Soviet Union was the area of influence over the Eastern European countries; hence, forming the so called “iron curtain”.

As the cold war warmed again after the invasion of Afghanistan, both sides participated in a series of revengeful escalations of tensions. As matter of fact, “the Soviets Union emplaced intermediate range ballistic missiles (IRBM) in Eastern Europe. In respond, the United

Robert McNamara, then defense secretary, stated in a speech in 1962 ‘principle military objectives in the event of a nuclear war against the NATO alliance should be destruction of an enemies military forces, not his civilian population. Five years later, towards the end of his tenure as secretary of defense, McNamara stressed ‘now it is imperative to understand that assured destruction is the whole essence of the deterrence concept. It means the certainty of suicide to the aggressor, not merely to his military forces but to society as a whole. This shows the smart and clear shift in McNamara leaning towards the limiter’s school. (The change was primarily in declaratory policy, as in what was said about nuclear weapons in plans; the actual nuclear policy of the US under McNamara 's control emphasized the targeting of military installations, not civilian populations) The soviets had begun to build very large warheads, and many of them put even well protected sites in additional risk. Perhaps more important, however, was the advent of MIRV, Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicle meant that one missile with several warheads could independently target multiple missiles. For a variety of reasons, rather than becoming another stride in the arms race, ABM development in the late 60s and early 70s provided an impetus for the first US/soviet arms control agreement. Together with the ABM restrictions, the first strategic arms limitation treaty SALT put the first

Until the 1950s, the discussion of strategic nuclear policy was embryonic at best, and many strategic developments went largely unrecognized. The post second world war era started with a US monopoly on nuclear weapons, however the Soviets soon broke this and both sides developed hydrogen bombs. In the early 1950s, the US followed the policy of massive retaliation. However, by the late 1950s, with the advent of the modern missile based on V-2 technology from the end of WWII and further dramatized by the Soviet launching of sputnik in 1957, the US was forced to reconsider its nuclear doctrine. One school of thought believed

Around the 1960s the deterrence strategy began to change. The Soviet Union began to develop nuclear tipped ICBMs (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile) that could reach U.S. soil in a timely manner. This could undermine the precarious logic of deterrence by

To prevent Soviet Union’s influence in the world, the US then substantially built up its conventional and nuclear forces. The Cold War had been the primary factor of the arms race by both US and Soviet Union. Both countries responded to the each other’s nuclear capabilities by building more sophisticated nuclear warheads

Reagan’s way of dealing with the Soviets abandoned the idea of détente, a policy that encouraged a peaceful relationship between