Changes

==Start of a Thaw==

Nixon's ascension brought competing ideas to light. In one regard, he was a Cold Warrior, launching a large escalation of bombing in Vietnam (and later Cambodia and Laos) while also dramatically reducing the number of combat troops in Southeast Asia. Nixon also ended the draft, undercutting a major argument of American doves. As both Brezhnev and Nixon were looked upon as hardliners, it appeared that a thaw might not be possible. The year before Nixon took office, Brezhnev launched a bloody repression of an uprising in Czechoslovakia.

The United States also saw the emerging Sino-Soviet split. Mao bitterly resented Khrushchev's de-Stalinization and the Soviets feared China joining the nuclear club. China was growing increasingly uneasy with the Soviets' role in Vietnam, disliking the idea of a Soviet client state on their southern border. With this backdrop, Nixon began negotiations with Soviet Premier Brezhnev in 1969 on a series of bilateral arms reduction treaties. The first was the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty, or SALT, which limited the number of nuclear warheads on each side. The following year the two superpowers agreed to the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, or ABM, which limited the number of anti-ICBM defenses each nation would develop. This thaw grew into a wider policy, known as Detente between East and West. One of the largest and most symbolic acts was the agreement between many capitalist and Communist nations to sign the Helsinki Accords in 1975 in an effort to further improve relations. A follow up SALT II Treaty was signed by Brezhnev and Carter in 1979. <ref>Hanhimaki, Jussi, ''The Rise and Fall of Detente.'' Washington: Potomac Books, 2013. Page 83.</ref>

==Conclusion==

The better relations between the United States with China and the Soviet Union was not a permanent development. As the United States and her allies fell into a deep "malaise" in the late 1970s the Soviets attempted to take advantage of the situation. The Soviets expanded their influence in the Middle East and invaded Afghanistan to prop up a puppet government in 1979. Brezhnev also kept Eastern Europe repressed with a heavy hand through the remainder of his dictatorship. It was in this backdrop that former California Governor Ronald Reagan ran and won for President in 1980, promising to end the Detente.