Détente

Détente

…it was the policy of relaxing tensions between Moscow and the West, as promoted by Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger and Leonid Brezhnev, 1969 – 1974.

The Nixon administration promoted dialogue with the Soviet government regular summit meetings and negotiations over arms control and other bilateral agreements

Fortifying the Status Quo
Architects:

• Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev

• Henry Kissinger

1969:

MAD
The discussions between the two superpowers claimed the capacity for Mutual Assured
Destruction

Problems:
*Reciprocal nuclear limitations
*Old layers of suspicion

November 1969

the SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty) talks are launched.
numerous SALT meetings in Helsinki and Vienna

• major issue: Soviets resisted American demand to include offensive weapons in their
  discussions.

• closely managed behind the scenes by Henry Kissinger
  Anatoly Dobrynin (Soviet ambassador)

major breakthrough: May 1971

US grain sales to Soviet Union

Nixon traveled to China-February 1972

Meetings between Nixon and Brezhnev
For the first time during the Cold War, the United States and Soviet Union had agreed to limit the number of nuclear missiles in their arsenals.

Pledge to avoid military confrontations:
The agreements include provisions that are important steps to strengthen assurance against violations:

• *both sides undertake not to interfere with national technical means of verification

• *agree not to use deliberate concealment measures to impede verification

SALT I

… is the common name for the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks Agreement signed on May 26, 1972.

• froze the number of strategic ballistic missile launchers.

• Negotiations lasted from November 17, 1969, until May 1972 in a series of meetings beginning in Helsinki. Subsequent sessions alternated between Vienna and Helsinki.

• After a long deadlock, the first results of “ “ came in May 1971.

• May 26, 1972, in Moscow when Richard Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev signed both the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty
  

SALT II

… was a series of talks between United States and Soviet negotiators from 1972 to 1979 which sought to curtail the manufacture of strategic nuclear weapons.

• It was a continuation of the SALT I talks and was led by representatives from both countries.

• The “ '“ Treaty banned new missile programs, so both sides were forced to limit their new
  strategic missile types development and construction

OSTPOLITIK

• the normalization of relations between the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, or West Germany) and Eastern Europe, particularly the German Democratic Republic (GDR, or East Germany) beginning in 1969.

It was masterminded by Willy Brandt, the Western German Chancellor

August 1970- Treaty of Moscow

renouncing the use of force and recognizing the current
European borders

Treaty of Warsaw

formally recognizing the People's Republic of Poland.

May 1971:

in East Germany Party leader Walter Ulbricht is replaced with Erich Honecker

August 1971:

Pact with East Germany
unimpeded access to Berlin

November 1972:

Basic Treaty with GDR (East-Germany)

1973:

both West Germany and East Germany entered the United Nations

New Leaders:
1974:

• Brezhnev

• Nixon

• Brandt (Germany)

• Pompidou (French)

Schmidt ( new German Chancellor) and Giscard d'Estaign (president of France) less devoted

** 1973-74

oil prices very high

**America setback in Vietnam

**Soviet trade with weapons: Western Europe and Third World

HUMAN RIGHTS:

he emergence of Human Right as an element of international relations
*Soviet anti-Semitism/ Eastern-European anti-Semitism
*Treatment of dissidents

1969

the first USSR/Soviet Human Right Association
December 10 1974, Gerald Ford created the Human Rights Day
"deep devotion to human rights and individual freedoms."

SOLIDARNOSC

Poland: ¼ of Eastern Europe population

economic misery

Kremlin stopped subsidizing oil and gas exports to Eastern Europe

October 16, 1978

Karol Wojtyla was elected Pope

1980:

strikes (workers from the city)
Gdansk - Lech Walesa

Solidarnosk -- Nationwide Trade Union
10 mil workers, farmers, students
became a social and political movement

Ronald Reagan

rebirth of Soviet-American confrontation

MARTIAL LAW IN POLAND

General Wojciech Jaruzelski
led Poland 1981-1989

December 1981 - martial law was declared

SANCTIONS:
USA
Less Great Britain

mild France and Weste Germany