For many, this time in Soviet history is seen as a time of relaxation in international relations between the U.S. and Soviets. When I think about this time it isn’t merely a period of relaxation, but a conditional era of co-existing between two superpowers. The Cold War was never really cold, it had seen many accounts in its era where things could intensify between the two nations. Space races, improvements in technology, and involvement in the international arena are not necessarily ‘cold’ movements in a period of ‘relaxing’. Freeze states that the point of detente from a Soviet prospective was, “to counteract the international furore over the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 (Freeze, 445.)” An invasion of another country is not relaxed, however the personality of the Soviet government needed to align itself with another international powerhouse to pursue common interests. Detente is one of the most intriguing maneuvers the Soviet’s utilized in their effort to improve its reputation on an international level.
On the home front, the Soviet Union experienced its own issues, “the decline in the industrial growth…a command economy with all its inefficiencies compounded by the incompetence of a superannuated leadership (Freeze, 442).” Furthermore, as detente became part of the USSR’s policy with the U.S., efforts to enhance collaboration were apparent. The SALT-I treaty was one step in a collaborative effort to set limits on offensive missiles and anti-ballistic missiles for the next five years. On the international scene, this was a tremendous achievement on both sides from lessons learned in World War II.
As time progresses, conflict will progress with it, and the 1970s involved a large amount of instability in conflict within regions of the world. The Vietnam war being one of these issues, we can see the USSR become more involved in its increased presence within underdeveloped countries. In addition to this period of eased tension, it’s intriguing to note that the USSR had goals to improve their relations with the Chinese government. Improved relations between China and the USSR was unsuccessful, as well as their goals to create greater authority within Asia. Detente was a conditional period, and to not achieve significant improvements for the interests of the USSR would lead to the end of detente. At the end we see the Soviet Union electing to intervene militarily in Afghanistan for its strategic importance. Detente would end and carry onward with the Soviet Union into a period of dissent, consuming resources and the lives of Soviets that would prove to have horrible effects.
Freeze, Gregory L. Russia: A History Third Edition . Oxford University Press, 2009.
Max Ellis' Blog 
Max, I think your post does a good job of highlighting key points of Detente. The Soviets had high hopes for this temporary ease of tensions but unfortunately it was unsuccessful and had damaging effects on the future of the Soviet State.
LikeLike
Hey Natalie, detente was essentially the beginning of the collapse of the Soviet Union when you think about it. It was a big achievement for both countries to agree with setting limitations on their nuclear arsenals. It is not surprising though that the Soviets wanted more out of it eventually. It was all conditional, detente to a period of dissent.
LikeLike
I love the WordCloud / image you chose! Also, plus one for Natalie’s observation that you touch on some of the key issues of Detente here. I don’t agree that “detente was the beginning of the end” for the Soviet Union, though. For nearly a decade detente worked to uphold US and Soviet interests, including the acceptance by both sides of areas of interest (for the other side) in various parts of the world. I would say that the demise of detente was symptomatic of broader shifts in the dynamics of the Cold War rather than the cause of the Soviet Union’s collapse.
LikeLike
Evening Dr. Nelson, you are right about detente being great for both countries interests. After reflecting I think what I was trying to get at is, agreements between countries comes back to this idea of it being conditional (unless written or agreed it is not). From my research, what I gathered is that once the Soviet Union wanted to expand more influence in the world it steered off the path of the allied interests between the two. Intervention in other affairs such as the invasion of Afghanistan broke away from their shared interests, wanting different outcomes in this affair.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Andrew Grant (9:05 PM EST 4/27) – This is a really interesting post. Yes, after the Chinese-Soviet split, and after receiving international condemnation over their handling of the Prague Spring crisis in 1968, they had become increasingly diplomatically isolated, while the West was growing stronger and gaining influence across the world. Detente, was a good strategy for the time being in the Soviet Union. China was increasingly drawing away from the Soviet Sphere, and the West capitalized on it, Nixon met with Mao and recognized the PRC. The West was winning much of the game, with regards to gaining influence across the world, and detente put the Soviets in a better position, particularly since they got a lot of animosity over actions seen as “imperialistic” in Czechoslovakia.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Andrew, you make very interesting points and bring it back full circle with mentioning the invasion of Czechoslovakia. Detente was a good strategical move for while, eventually it still resulted in isolation once again after acting in Afghanistan.
LikeLike
Max, good post. The 1970s were an interesting time between the two superpowers. I do agree that it definitely wasn’t a ‘cold’ period. Hot points throughout the decade kept tensions going. It’s crazy how the Soviets watched the US go through a military quagmire in Vietnam and they went into Afghanistan right after.
LikeLike
It really displays this common trend that occurred in the 40s, 50s, and 60s with all the wars and international politics that led up to a spark. Luckily, things never escalated the way they did in those last three decades. The 70s and rest of the Cold War really played with the fire.
LikeLike
This was a good post. I liked that you brought up the Soviet Union’s involvement in Afghanistan. That was the Russian equivalency to the United States involvement in Vietnam. I agree that the Cold War between Russia and the United States was not really cold, there were certain hot spots between the two nations, one prime example is the Cuban Missile Crisis. While there was no direct conflict between the two nations, there was a whole lot of events and actions taking place behind the scenes.
LikeLike
A lot of people have been talking about the invasion of Afghanistan, and I think this week everyone has been getting into more of how badly the cold war could have been. Its intriguing you said it was equivalent to the Vietnam war, it could have been another stepping stone to an even larger conflict.
LikeLike
Hi Max, such a great blog post! I knew very little on Detente and you explained it quite nicely. You made an interesting point, even though there was no war going on between the two superpowers, there was still lots of tensions, since both countries tried to be the best which did not involved the military or nuclear powers.
LikeLike
The Cold War has seen different variations of conflict, one post discussed Soviet science fiction in comparison to Western forms. I think this era found numerous ways to push on another to its limit in a potential conflict. Detente was one of those aims to bring the tension down, but we would see this rise again after the invasion of Afghanistan. Thank you for your feedback!
LikeLike