Why did the USA pursue a policy of detente in the early 1970's?

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Why did the USA pursue a policy of detente in the early 1970’s?

History has so far shown there is only two roads to international stability, equilibrium and domination.” This quote from American Sectary of State Henry Kissenger describes the situation America faced in the late 1960’s. 1

        By the late 1960’s, America was facing a humiliating defeat in Vietnam and many leading American politicians realised that a new type of diplomacy with the Soviet Union and China was necessary to prevent the Cold War escalating into a very hot and almost certainly nuclear war. Henry Kissenger, a respected American scholar and politician looked to peaceful 19th century Europe after the demise of Napoleon Bonaparte to argue that a balance of power was required to maintain world peace. Just as the great powers of 19th century Europe; Great Britain, Prussia, Austria-Hungary and Russia had maintained relatively good relations and peace, then America would have to act similarly in it’s relations with the other great powers of the mid to late 20th century. Kissenger realised that to do so America would have to act diplomatically and sometimes ignore it’s past fundamental beliefs and foreign policies “Statesmen cannot always live by their principles”. 2 

        Kissenger convinced American President Richard Nixon that an American policy of detente was required, aside from other reasons; America was no longer able to maintain it’s previous foreign policy, it needed to change direction. Detente is a French word, which can be translated as meaning release from tension. It was this release from tension that the United States of America sought against its chief opponents on the global stage in the early 1970’s the Soviet Union and The People’s Republic of China.

        America’s attempts to curtail communism had failed. The two largest, most populous countries in the world had fallen to communism. Other countries like Vietnam and Cuba, despite America’s best efforts had also become communist. It was becoming increasingly clear that America would have to change it’s tactics and accept that communism countries like the Soviet Union were not the evil empires they had made them out to be. President Nixon faced a number of problems both domestically and internationally, none of which would be fixed by America’s then foreign policy. It was clear that America needed to bite the bullet and prepare to negotiate with the Soviet’s and China.

Another factor, which influenced America adopting a policy of détente, was the Vietnam War. It was undeniable that the horrors of the Vietnam War had shocked most Americans to the very core. Vietnam was the first war fought in front of the television cameras. American television networks were able for the first time to relay live images from the battlefields back home and the result was utter disbelief. Whereas Americans had once felt detached from war, they could suddenly see the bloody brutality of it as they sat down with their families at dinnertime or just before they went to bed. Unsurprisingly, this dismay led to enormous fear of a potential nuclear war.

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        Since the seeds of the Cold War were first sown in the aftermath of the Second World War, America and the Soviet Union had aimed to exemplify its military strength by stockpiling nuclear weapons. The devastation of the bombs dropped on Japan in 1946 showed how dangerous nuclear weapons could be and by the 1960’s the Atomic bomb had been replaced by weapons capable of total destruction on a global scale.

        Many Americans were also concerned about possible atrocities being committed in their name against innocent Vietnamese citizens. The publication of the story about the My Lai massacre and others ...

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