Ancient history

The “détente” (1963 - 1974)

Nuclear agreements

In the aftermath of the Cuban missile crisis, which almost plunged the world into a Third World War, the United States and the USSR decided to come together to control, in a spirit of transparency, a balance henceforth based on "destruction mutually insured” (MAD in English).

From June 1963, a "red telephone", a permanent link by teletype between the Kremlin and the White House, enabled them to consult each other immediately and thus avoid diplomacy "on the edge of the abyss".

In August 1963, they signed the Moscow Treaty, which prohibited atmospheric and underwater nuclear tests.

The assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963 upsets the planet, everywhere people mourn this young president, including the USSR. Kennedy's successor, Lyndon Johnson, pledges to pursue detente. Johnson will unfortunately commit his country to the Vietnam War.

In January 1968, by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), resulting from a joint American-Soviet project presented to the Disarmament Commission in Geneva, they undertake, together with the United Kingdom, not to transfer or nuclear weapons or technology to NDEANs (non-nuclear weapon states).

In May 1972, the SALT I agreements (Strategic Armements Limitation Talks), signed by Nixon and Brezhnev, limited defensive anti-missile armaments (ABM) to two sites for each of the two countries and froze nuclear weapons for five years. offensive, i.e. fixed launch pads for intercontinental missiles (ICBMs) and missiles installed on submarines (SLBMs).

In June 1979, Carter and Brezhnev signed the SALT II agreements, negotiated since 1974 as an extension of SALT I. These agreements provided for a freeze on launchers with multiple warheads (MIRV) and reciprocal control of nuclear weapons. They were not ratified by the US Senate due to the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan, although both sides declared they would abide by their terms.

The motives for this rapprochement are multiple. First, there is obviously the desire to get out of an arms race that is increasingly costly, and absurd because of the “overkill capacity” of nuclear arsenals; moreover, the USSR was contested by the People's Republic of China, the Sino-Soviet split allowing, within the framework of a now triangular diplomacy, a Sino-American rapprochement; at the same time, due to a stagnating economy, the USSR needs external aid that the United States ties to political agreements (Henry Kissinger's linkage); and finally, the United States, for their part, are engaged in the war in Vietnam, which is absorbing an excessive share of the American budget:hence the desire of the two "adversary-partners" (Raymond Aron) to achieve a reasonable handling of the cold war.

Detente in Europe (1962 - 1975)

In each of the two blocks, pro-Soviet and pro-American, the two Greats are disputed. The Soviet model is contested in Eastern Europe. In 1968 Czechoslovakia was invaded by Warsaw Pact troops:the Prague Spring was coming to an end. In the West, De Gaulle distanced himself from the United States and NATO. In 1969, Willy Brandt became Chancellor of the FRG and initiated a policy of rapprochement and openness to the East called Ostpolitik. The two states recognized each other in 1972 and joined the UN in 1973. The Berlin Wall became more and more permeable.

In 1975, the Helsinki Accords[29] were signed by 33 European states, including the USSR (but also Canada and the US). The agreements must allow for cooperation between States, the free movement of people and respect for human rights.

The People's Republic of China, the 3rd actor

The apparent cohesion of the communist bloc cracked with the Sino-Soviet split, which saw these two regimes clash on ideological and diplomatic grounds.

The risk of a war between these two giants was taken very seriously during the Sino-Soviet border conflict of 1969. Noting that Beijing could not confront both Moscow and Washington, Mao chose to approach the United States. The geographical proximity of the USSR indeed posed, according to him, a much greater threat than the United States.

In order to weaken the Soviet Union in the communist world, the United States seized the opportunity and approached the People's Republic of China, which embarked on an arms race (A bomb on October 16, 1964, H bomb on June 14, 1967). Nixon seeks to further isolate the Soviet Union, especially in the Third World.

The United States table tennis team traveled to China on April 10, 1971:it was “ping pong diplomacy”. On October 25, 1971, under pressure from the United States, the UN recognizes the People's Republic of China, which now sits on the Security Council (76 votes for, 35 against, 17 abstentions) and on the Security Council in place of Taiwan, excluded . Finally, President Nixon, invited by Mao Zedong, goes to China (February 1972).

Despite the anti-Americanism of a large part of the population and the Chinese administration, the strategic and economic relations between the United States are gaining momentum with, in particular, the installation of two listening stations of the Echelon network on the Sino-Soviet border between 1981 and 1989, when the suppression of the demonstrations in Tian'anmen Square led to an end to this collaboration.

The limits of “relaxation”

The Big Two are involved in significant conflicts. Both lead a struggle for influence in Third World countries:this is called peripheral conflicts.

From 1964 to 1975, the Vietnam War indirectly opposed the great powers, through Stalinist North Vietnam and capitalist South Vietnam. The United States engages militarily in Vietnam from 1962.
Main article:Vietnam War.

The United States supported many dictators and provoked several coups (Cambodia in 1970, Chile in 1973...), with the sole aim of containing the Soviet empire. In Latin America, the Castro regime supports revolutionary guerrillas against these dictators, which end in failure.