Changes

Detente was a period lasting approximately from 1972 to 1981 in which there was a thaw in relations between the United States and the Soviet Union. It was punctuated by several major and surprising events, including the end of American involvement in the Vietnam War, a large economic downturn in the West, and the opening of relations with China. This period proved to be starkly different than the escalations in Cold War tensions in the 1960s and 1980s and is generally attributed to Richard Nixon's deft diplomacy.

The years leading up to the rapprochement between the United States and the Soviet Union were often tense. The 1950s saw a massive military buildup on both sides, with the number of deployable nuclear weapons reaching into the tens of thousands. Furthermore, the 1950s and 1960s saw other countries, including the U.K., France, and China each joining the nuclear club. The defining moment of this arms race was the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis that brought the superpowers to the brink of war.

Although the United States had been sending advisers to anti-Communist South Vietnam since France left its former colony in the 1950s, the involvement quickly escalated in the mid-1960s. The U.S. utilized drafted soldiers, causing tremendous resentment on the home front. Furthermore, the South Vietnamese regime was unstable, facing several coups and general unpopularity. By 1968 there were already over 600,000 combat troops in the country, representing the peak of American intervention.

====Major Political Changes====