Détente (/deɪˈtɑːnt/ ⓘday-TAHNT,alsoUK:/ˈdeɪtɒnt/DAY-tont;[1][2]French for 'relaxation',French pronunciation:[detɑ̃t])[3] is the relaxation of strained relations, especially political ones, through verbal communication. The diplomacy term originates from around 1912, whenFrance andGermany tried unsuccessfully to reduce tensions.[4]
The term is often used to refer to a period of general easing of geopolitical tensions between theSoviet Union and theUnited States during theCold War.Détente began 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 administration promoted greater dialogue with the Soviet government in order to facilitate negotiations over arms control and other bilateral agreements.[5]Détente was known inRussian asразрядка (razryadka), loosely meaning "relaxation of tension".
While the recognized era ofdétente formally 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 Crisis in 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 ofdétente in the Cold War saw the ratification of major disarmament treaties such as theAnti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the creation of more symbolic pacts such as theHelsinki Accords. An ongoing debate among historians exists as to how successful thedétente period was in achieving peace.[6][7]
Détente is considered to have ended after theSoviet intervention in Afghanistan in 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-détente campaign, induced a period of rising tension.[8] In his first press conference, Reagan claimed that the U.S.'s pursuit ofdétente had been used by the Soviet Union to further its interests.[9]
Relations continued to increasingly sour through theunrest in Poland, the U.S.'s withdrawal from theSALT II arms treaty, and theNATO Able Archer exercise.[10][11]
In response to the heightening tensions, U.S. secretary of stateGeorge P. Shultz shifted theRonald Reagan administration's foreign policy towards another period of de-escalation with the Soviet Union especially followingMikhail Gorbachev coming to power. During Gorbachev's leadership, dialogue over theSTART arms 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 1984 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 whatdétente meant" while simultaneously holding "an inaccurate belief that both sides shared principles and expectations for future behaviour."[14]
BeforeRichard Nixon became president, the foundations ofdétente were 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 importantdétente treaties were developed. The Political Consultative Committee of theWarsaw Pact sent 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 Talks began towards actual limits on the nuclear capabilities of both superpowers, which ultimately led to the signing of theSALT I treaty 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 Convention and theAnti-Ballistic Missile Treaty were concluded, and talks on SALT II began the same year. TheWashington Summit of 1973 further 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 rights issues. 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 Constitution directly violated theDeclaration of Human Rights of theUnited Nations, and that issue became a prominent point of separation between the United States and the Soviet Union.[17]
TheJimmy Carter administration had been supporting human rights groups inside the Soviet Union, andLeonid Brezhnev accused 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 Ford on 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 allowingrefuseniks to emigrate. It also added to themost favoured nation status a clause that no country that resisted emigration could be awarded that status, which provided a method to linkgeopolitics to human rights.[18]
Nixon and hisnational security advisor,Henry Kissinger, moved towarddétente with theSoviet Union in 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]
Nixon andBrezhnev signed 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 ofdétente militarily since an expansion of nuclear ballistic arms had started to occur.[20]
The goal of Nixon andKissinger was 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.
A significant example of an event contributing todétente was 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]
As direct relations thawed, increased tensions continued between both superpowers through theirproxies, especially in theThird World. Conflicts inSouth Asia and theMiddle East in 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-wing electoral shifts in the region by supporting unpopularright-wingmilitary coups and military dictatorships. Meanwhile, there were also many communist or left-wingguerrillas around the region, which were militarily and economically backed by the Soviet Union, China and Cuba.[citation needed]
During much of the earlydétente period, theVietnam War continued to rage. Both sides still mistrusted each other, and the potential fornuclear war remained constant, notably during the 1973Yom Kippur War when the U.S. raised its alert level toDEFCON 3, 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 inKorea andEurope with large ground forces.Espionage efforts remained a high priority, anddefectors,reconnaissance satellites, and signal intercepts measured each other's intentions to try to gain a strategic advantage.[citation needed]
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, which was held in Moscow. U.S. presidentJimmy Carter boosted the budget of theU.S. Department of Defense and began financial aid to the office of Pakistan presidentMuhammad Zia-ul-Haq, who, in turn, subsidized the anti-Soviet radical Islamist group ofAfghan mujahideen fighters.[26]
Another contributing factor in the decline in the popularity ofdétente as a desirable U.S. policy was theinter-service rivalry between 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 ofdétente in 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 thatRumsfeld believed were required to maintain the favorable gap between the US and the Soviets. Rumsfeld responded by regularly presenting a morealarmist view 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 ofdétente as 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 administration talked about a "winnable" nuclear war and led to the creation of theStrategic Defense Initiative and theThird World policy of funding irregular and paramilitarydeath squads inCentral America,sub-Saharan Africa,Cambodia, and Afghanistan.[5]
On 17 December 2014, U.S. presidentBarack Obama and Cuba presidentRaúl Castro resolved 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 Francis and 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 Havana and 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 administration announced the removal of Cuba from theState Sponsors of Terrorism list.[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 visitCuba sinceCalvin Coolidge visited 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]
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