Monday, April 13, 2015
Detente
Today we watched a video which discussed the topic detente. Detente means relaxation in French which is what the USSR and the US wanted to do. During this period the USSR was focusing on avoiding war and having a constructive relationship with the US. The US was focusing on Vietnamization (trying to get the Vietnamese to fight their own war) and was hoping that they could work something out with the USSR so they don't have to worry about Vietnam anymore. It was during the Moscow Summit of 1972 that laid down the foundations of detente for the US and USSR and began the SALT talks.
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Did the US and USSR understand that the peace between them would be short lived? Or did they think that they were finally going to find permanent peace?
ReplyDeleteThe United States and the USSR have never been able to really have a good understanding with each other, but I was surprised that they were able to make peace for at least a short amount of time.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that using SALT was very helpful because both US and USSR went behind each others backs and had and were producing weapons. But I was shocked that the US and USSR were in peace for a little while
ReplyDeleteI think the idea of SALT was good because both countries realized that a mass build up of weapons was not what they wanted. Even if it did not turn out as planned, the concept of lessening of weapons was helpful.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Sarah, the SALT negotiations helped the nations realize that the buildup of weapons was becoming unhealthy and that something needed to happen to relieve the pressure. However, I think that since the two nations didn't quite trust each other completely, this lead to the talks being useless in getting anything actually done.
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