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[[File:1149px-Kitchen debate.jpg|thumbnail|300px|Debate between Nikita Khrushchev and Richard Nixon in 1959 in American model kitchen in Moscow.]]

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 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 credited as a major function of Richard Nixon's diplomacy.

==Introduction==

The years leading up to the rapprochement between the United States and Soviet Union were often tense, to say the least. 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.

==Major Political Changes==

There were a series of important shifts in the United States, China, and Soviet Union that allowed for policy to change. In the Soviet Union Premier Nikita Khrushchev was replaced by party hardliner Leonid Brezhnev. There was also increasing tension between the U.S.S.R. and People's Republic of China, which resulted in a brief border conflict in 1969. China's Great Leap Forward, intended to modernize and industrialize the country, had failed terribly, and dictator Mao Zedong sought alternatives to Soviet hegemony. The United States saw a prolonged period of instability initiated by the assassination of President John Kennedy in November 1963. Protests against involvement in Vietnam and a series of social issues continued to grow. By 1968 President Lyndon Johnson was broken in spirit and decided not to run for re-election. <ref>Gaddis, John Lewis, ''The Cold War: a New History.''' New York: Penguin Books, 2006. Pages 79-80.</ref>

==Start of a Thaw==

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>

*[[Causes of World War II Top Ten Booklist]]

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