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Unlock This CourseThe agreements of the 1960s made the Cold War a little safer. From 1969 the superpowers went further. The new American president, Richard Nixon, said in his first speech as president in January 1969: 'after a period of confrontation, we are entering an era of negotiation.' The Soviet leader, Leonid Brezhnev, was ready to talk too. This new stage is called Détente.
Key terms:
Neither side had stopped being a rival. Each had its own practical reasons for wanting calmer relations.
Reaching parity had cost the Soviet Union a huge share of its wealth. Its people were short of housing and consumer goods, and its farms could not grow enough grain. Brezhnev wanted to spend less on weapons and to buy Western grain and technology. The USA was also under strain, because the war in Vietnam was swallowing billions of dollars. Now a new and very costly round of the race was beginning, as both sides started work on ABM systems.
The Cuban Missile Crisis had shown how quickly a quarrel could bring the world to the edge of nuclear war. With parity, both sides knew that a war would destroy them both. ABMs made things more dangerous, not less. A country that believed it could shoot down enemy missiles might be tempted to strike first, and its rival would simply build more missiles to get through.
By 1968 the USA had more than half a million troops in Vietnam and was no nearer to winning. The war was deeply unpopular at home. Nixon had promised to end it, and he wanted a way out that did not look like defeat. The Soviet Union and China were North Vietnam's main suppliers. Nixon and his adviser Henry Kissinger hoped that better relations with both would lead them to press North Vietnam to make peace.
'Sino' means Chinese. The two great Communist powers had quarrelled since the late 1950s, and in March 1969 their soldiers fought on the border along the Ussuri River. The Soviet Union now faced a possible enemy in the east as well as the west. Nixon used this. Kissinger made a secret trip to Beijing in July 1971, and in February 1972 Nixon himself visited China and met Mao. Brezhnev feared the USA and China lining up against him, so he became keener to reach agreements with Washington.
The talks opened in Helsinki, Finland, in November 1969 and moved between Helsinki and Vienna for two and a half years. In May 1972 Nixon flew to Moscow, the first American president to visit the Soviet capital while in office. On 26 May 1972 he and Brezhnev signed SALT 1. It had two main parts.
Each side agreed to let the other check the numbers with spy satellites. This solved the old quarrel about inspectors.
What SALT 1 left out: it only limited weapons. It did not destroy any. It set no limit on bombers, where the USA had a big lead. It did not cover the newest technology, which put several warheads on one missile, each aimed at a different target. So the number of warheads kept rising. And the freeze was only for five years.
For the first time the superpowers had put limits on their own nuclear weapons. At the Moscow summit they also signed a statement of 'Basic Principles', promising to do their utmost to avoid military confrontations, and agreed to plan a joint space flight. In July 1972 the Soviet Union agreed to buy 750 million dollars of American grain over three years. Europe was calmer too. A four-power agreement of September 1971 confirmed Western access to West Berlin, the city that had caused so many crises. Talks on SALT 2 began in November 1972.
The Cold War was not over. Each side still had enough weapons to destroy the other many times. They still held opposite beliefs. The Brezhnev Doctrine still stood in Eastern Europe. In Vietnam they still backed opposite sides. Only weeks before the summit, Nixon ordered heavy bombing of North Vietnam and laid mines in Haiphong harbour, where Soviet ships unloaded. The summit went ahead anyway, which shows how much both leaders wanted it. But Détente rested on shared interests, not on trust.
Don't say SALT 1 reduced nuclear weapons. It limited the number of launchers and ABM sites. Don't say Détente ended the Cold War. And don't treat the Sino-Soviet split as a side issue: explain how it pushed the Soviet Union towards the USA.
'The main reason for Détente between the superpowers by 1972 was the cost of the arms race.'
How far do you agree? Explain your answer. [16 marks]
You may use the following in your answer:
You must also use information of your own.
The cost of the arms race was not the only reason for Détente, but I largely agree that it was the main one. A reason should count as 'main' if it pushed both superpowers to the table, not just one.
Cost mattered a great deal to the Soviet Union. Reaching parity with the USA in long-range missiles by about 1970 had used up a huge share of its wealth, while its people were short of housing and consumer goods and its farms could not grow enough grain. Brezhnev wanted to spend less on weapons and to buy Western grain and technology. Both sides also faced a new and very expensive round of the race in ABM systems. This explains why the ABM Treaty was at the heart of SALT 1.
However, the Sino-Soviet split gave the Soviet Union a second strong reason. After the border fighting on the Ussuri River in March 1969, it faced a possible enemy in the east as well as the west. When Nixon visited China in February 1972, Brezhnev feared the two lining up against him. It is no accident that SALT 1 was signed only three months later. The split added urgency, but it worked mainly on the Soviet side.
For the USA, the war in Vietnam was the strongest reason. With more than half a million troops there by 1968 and no victory in sight, Nixon had promised to end the war. He hoped that better relations with the Soviet Union and China, North Vietnam's main suppliers, would lead them to press it to make peace. Vietnam was also a large part of the cost that made the USA want to slow the arms race, so these two reasons are linked.
Overall, I agree to a large extent. Vietnam mainly moved the USA and the split with China mainly moved the Soviet Union, but the cost of the arms race pressed on both at once. It also explains what they chose to agree on: limits on missiles and ABMs. The other reasons decided the timing. Cost was the reason the two sides shared.
What lifts this to the top level: it covers three reasons, one of them not in the bullets, argues both for and against the statement, and reaches a judgement using a stated test (which reason moved both superpowers).
An answer that uses only the two bullets cannot reach the top level, so plan a third reason before you write. Vietnam or the fear of nuclear war both work here. Then set a test for 'main' in your opening lines and return to it in your conclusion. For more help, see the lesson Paper 1 Question (c): The 16-Mark How Far Do You Agree Essay.