DÉTENTE
Maha Haque and John Scalley
Essential Question: How did the peace of Détente affect the global political climate?
APUSH THEME: Politics and Power
What is it?
- cooling in hostilities and arms creation
- 1969 (SALT 1)= beginning of era
- 1979 (Soviet Intervention in Afghanistan)= end of era
Détente: french word for releasing tension
Why did this occur?
- both U.S. and U.S.S.R wanted to reduce spending on nuclear weapons
- due to war effort
- cuban missle crisis= realization that nuclear war approached
- needed to prevent nuclear war
- scared after what happened in Hiroshima
- 1960- China split from Russia on different path of communism -> U.S. believed detente would keep them seperate
- NOT END OF THE COLD WAR
- temporary calming of tensions
In the USSR?
- détente was a formal affair
- May 22, 1972- Nixon is the first US President to visit Moscow
- long process
- Strategic Arms Limitations Talks
- treaties limiting both the number of nuclear weapons
- antinuclear weapons systems in each country’s arsenal
- agreeing for both countries to aid each other in space development
- agreeing for America to sell grain to the USSR
- signed May 26, 1972
SALT 2:
- began in 1972 because many aspects broken from SALT 1
- to limit every type of nuclear warhead
- Jimmy Carter- increase US nuclear arsenal and military power
- USSR invaded Afghanistan
- U.S. refused to sign
In China?
- secretive
- starts with the fall of China -America did not recognize communist government
- 1960’s= talks about China isolating nationalists to Taiwan
- Nixon's visit to China= helped U.S. and Chinese relations
- worsened relations between China and USSR
- increased USSR's interest in detente
Bibliography
"Cold War - Detente 1969-1975 3." YouTube. YouTube. Web. 12 Apr. 2015.
"détente." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2015. Web. 10 Apr. 2015.
http://americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/261200?terms=detente
"Détente." History.com. A&E Television Networks. Web. 10 Apr. 2015.
http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/detente
Fogarty, Richard. "Cold War." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2015. Web. 10 Apr. 2015.
http://americanhistory.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/263197?terms=Strategic+Arms+Limitation+talks
Kennedy, David M., and Thomas Andrew Bailey. The Brief American Pageant: A History of the Republic. 12th ed. Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath. Print.
"Strategic Arms Limitations Talks/Treaty (SALT) I and II - 1969–1976 - Milestones - Office of the Historian." Strategic Arms Limitations Talks/Treaty (SALT) I and II - 1969–1976 - Milestones - Office of the Historian. Web. 10 Apr. 2015.