Was détente just another form of containment?

Olivia Tubby

Détente•The policy of détente refers to a time throughout the 1960s-1970s where the two superpowers worked hard to ease tension and avoid conflict in the cold war.

•Many important events occurred throughout this time period, which illustrate the policy of détente. For example, a US table tennis team played in China.

•This time period was characterised by the signing of SALT 1 (strategic arms limitation talks).

Important détente events:• 1968 – Nuclear non-proliferation treaty• 1971 – US table tennis team played in China• - The US dropped its veto and allowed China to

join the UN.• 1972 – Nixon visited China• - Russia and America signed the SALT1 Treaty

(Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) agreeing to limit their anti-ballistic missiles and bombers.

• 1975 - The Helsinki Agreement.• - Russian and American spacecraft docked in

space.

Détente – a form of containment? (Gaddis)

• Many historians over the years have labelled détente as an extension of containment. The US still wanted to contain communism, but realised the importance of relaxing tensions with China and Russia.

• Détente is a strategy that must be seen as part of an overall foreign policy approach rather than as a stand alone strategy or foreign policy instrument.

• In short, in the US context it was another way of implementing an overall strategy of containment:– A different approach than the massive retaliation/low

resources and flexible responses/high resources interpretations of containment

– Thus an updated way of implementing containment within a particular context

– Not a substitute for or alternative to containment.

Limitations of détente• The Non-Proliferation Treaty did not stop other countries

developing nuclear weapons (eg China, and perhaps South Africa and Israel).

• Neither Russia or America kept to the SALT1 agreement. Neither side reduced their conventional weapons.

• The Helsinki Agreement achieved nothing.• Table tennis and space meetings were just one-off

propaganda stunts.• Brezhnev said that Communists would still try to destroy

capitalism. Some historians suggest that Nixon only went to China to drive a wedge between Russia and China

• President Raegan failed to continue détente.

Sources:

• Strategies of Containment – a critical appraisal of american national security policy during the cold war, John Lewis Gaddis.

• World Politics since 1945, Peter Calvocoressi.

• http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/detente.htm