Lecture 8, The rise of détente 1963-72

So last week I discussed how USA and the USSR dealt with post-Stalinism and the realisation that the Cold War was here to stay/ We thus saw moves by the Soviet Union to come to the table with the United States, most commonly through te issue of disarmament. With both sides aware of the need (in public at least) to show that hot war was not an option. At the same time, in private, both sides continued to condut intellience operations against each other. In the Soviet Union a more relaxed attitude towards their satellites brough issues, especially in East Germany, Poland and Hungary. This liberalisation provoked open revolt in Hungary. Soviets realised they had to allow an elment of freedom but not too much, otherwise uprisings would occur. We also saw how conflicts over Berlin and especially Cuba brought the world to the brink of hot war. We will see how a lot of the issues of 1953-63 carried over into 1963-72. The clearest example of this was a desire by the United States and the Soviet Union to relax relations between each other – position of co-operation which has been defined as détente. Important moves were made in this period to regulate the use of nuclear weapons and prevent their spread – leading to three treaties, Test Ban Treaty, Nuclear Proliferation Treaty and Salt 1. This period also saw the spread of relative diversity in both East and West Europe as a result of this more relaxed attitude. In the East Romania and Albania took a different path and in the West France began to move away from the Cold War orthodoxy imposed by the United States, this path was also followed by the West Germans with their famous policy of ‘Ostpolitik’ led by their chancellor Willy Brandt. The period also saw China strongly enter the world stage, at first by clashing with the Soviet Union and then through developing relations with the United States. Finally the period also dangerous clashes between India and Pakistan which tested Soviet-US relations. Overshadowing all of this was the Vietnam war which the US fought on the side of South Vietnam (will only briefly look into this).

Ok so let’s look at the rundown of the lecture. First we’re going to look at US-Soviet relations in the immediate aftermath of Cuba, with moves towards détente – Oxford English Dictionary defines this as ‘The easing of strained relations, esp. in a political situation.’

We’re then going to look at moves in both Western and Eastern Europe towards détente in the period

Then we’re going to look at détente between the Soviets and the US in 1964-8 and the slow progress due to a number of factors

We will then move on to the different approach of Richard Nixon who became president in January 1969, and the policy of his security adviser Henry Kissinger

We will then see how the US were able to manouvre between the Chinese and the Soviets in what has been called Triangular diplomacy, leading to two crucial summits with China and the Soviet Union in 1972. Then we will look at the limitation of weapons as the SALT (Strategic Arms limitations treaty I).

I will finally offer some conclusions.

Ok so let’s have a look at the situation in the wake of Cuban missile Crisis. As we have seen the world braced itself for Nuclear war in 1962. The US and public in the Western world had been seriously frightened by the prospect of war, whereas in the Soviet Union, people at the top of the Soviet hierarchy began to be irritated by the unconventional moves of Nikita Kruschev. The issue of Nuclear power control gave both powers a unity of purpose that they had not had since 1947. We saw last week how there were moves towards disarmament from both sides in the wake of Stalin’s death. The Cuban crisis confirmed the importance of these moves.

These moves were strengthened by growing anti-nuclear feeling amongst Western public opinion. This can be witnessed by anti-nuclear movements in Britain and West Germany from the mid 1950’s onwards. In West Germany the Campaign against Nuclear death and the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (which was launched in 1957), protested about the human and environmental consequences of nuclear war and nuclear testing. Indeed in These movements were noted by Soviet and US leaders 1958 Kruschev in an attempt to grab propaganda headlines had called for a ban on all nuclear testing. Linked to this, between 1958 and 1961 the Soviets and the Americans had temporarily delayed nuclear testing and had conducted discussions regarding a permanent banning of nuclear tests. The Soviets had began testing again in the summer of 1961 however. There was as you can see though previous pressure on both powers to move towards some kind of agreement regarding nuclear weapons.

Post-Cuba these pressures became stronger

This resulted in a number of moves:

1)Firstly Kennedy made a famous speech in June 1963 at American University where he called for a general peace with the Soviet Union based on mutual understanding. He also called for renewed talks on a Test Ban Treaty.

One important move towards mutual understanding was the signing of a hotline agreement at the end of June 1963. This provided a direct telephone link between the Kremlin and Washington in the case of an incident like Cuba.

In july 1963 - Negotiations began between the two sides regarding K’s offer of TBT. This treaty was eventually signed on August 5, 1963 by three foreign ministers (US, USSR and the UK who had become nuclear in 1952)– ratified by the senate September 1963. This was a very important move between the two powers.

(what did the TBT consist of) The Test Ban Treaty of 1963 which banned the testing of nuclear weapons underwater and overground but unfortunately not underground. There were some flaws of the TBT – for example the lack of signatures of the Treaty from powers who had just got the nuclear bomb (France exploded its first test bomb in 1960) and China (who did so a year later). Also India and Pakistan (who now have nuclear weapons did not sign up to the treaty). Whilst this was disappointing it was a major leap forward in relations between the United States and Soviet Union.