USA

A number of issues meant that the 'US-versus-Communism' model of the post-war Cold War was no longer relevant, and pushed the US to adopt a more conciliatory foreign policy:

USSR

A number of issues calmed Soviet fears of the West and pushed them to adopt a friendlier foreign policy:

1.  Nuclear Warrries

By the late 1960s, the USSR had caught up with the USA in nuclear weapons, and had much larger conventional forces.  A nuclear war would be Mutually Assured Destruction, and NATO exercises in Germany focussed on retreating as fast as possible. 

This meant that the US was no longer confident of victory if there was a war.  Instead, after his visit to Russia in 1959, Nixon had proposed:

“one world where different people live under the different systems they choose, but where there is freedom of communication and exchange, and cooperation in achieving mutual goals...  In other words, peaceful competition”. 

Meanwhile, the cost of the Cold War, particularly of the arms race and the war in Vietnam, was preventing spending on pressing social and economic issues in the USA. 

1.  Nuclear Warries

By the late 1960s, the USSR had caught up with the USA in nuclear weapons.  At the same time, the Soviet dominance in conventional forces made it confident of winning a conventional war with the USA (though not so much with China). 

Also, razryadka was a Leninist concept, and Khrushchev had promoted Peaceful coexistence/competition. 

Meanwhile, a US Air Command paper in 1987 estimated that Soviet spending on the defence budget was around 12 to 14% of Gross National Product, and was growing at 4-5% a year.  As time went on, the Soviet leadership became concerned to reduce this burden. 

2.  International Difficulties

By 1967, American’s war in Vietnam was going disastrously, and unrest at home was mounting.  In 1968, President Johnson opened peace negotiations to try to end “that bitch of a war”.  But the US needed the Soviet Union to influence North Vietnam to bring about peace. 

At the same time also, America’s influence in Europe was diminishing as its European allies – led by France and West Germany – made trade and treaty agreements with the Iron Curtain countries. 

Historian Jussi Hanhimäki believed (2013) that détente arose from the diminishing power and prestige of the United States, which found it could no longer be assertive. 

2.  International successes

After the Berlin Wall and Czechoslovakia, relations within the Warsaw Pact countries stabilised. 

France signed a trade agreement in 1964 and withdrew from NATO in 1966. 

West German Chancellor Willy Brandt’s Ostpolitik policy was seeking rapprochement with East Germany and the Soviet Union. 

This greatly reduced any threat to the USSR from Europe - the Soviet Union felt a lot safer for razryadka napryazkennosti (a reduction in tension).

3.  Economic and Social Problems

Aerica was undergoing a period of ‘stagflation’ (rising prices and economic recession).

In the late 1960s/early 1970s, oil supplies became unreliable because of:
(a)  the Biafran War in Nigeria (1967-70);
(b)  the Six-Day War (1967) and Yom Kippur War (1973) between Israel and the Arab states; and
(c)  the decision of the oil-producing ‘OPEC’ nations to raise the price. 
(d)  During the Arab-Israel conflict the Suez Canal was closed for six years, causing tankers to have to take a long route round the south of Africa. 

The entire Western economy and way-of-life depended on the price of oil, which threatened production, caused inflation, and increased the cost of armaments and the military. 

Meanwhile, in addition to the anti-Vietnam protests, there was increasing social and industrial unrest at home.  American historian Jeremi Suri suggested (2005) that détente was just the two governments clubbing together because they found themselves challenged from below!

3.  Economic and political problems

Soviet faming struggled to feed the nation, and by 1980 subsidies to agriculture took a fifth of the government’s budget.  Industrial growth slowed, and corruption and the black market flourished.  The Birth Rate fell, life expectancy stalled, housing was in crisis, and alcoholism was the highest in the world.  Dumping of industrial waste was destroying the environment.  ‘Dissidence’ (internal opposition to communism) was growing. 

After the "adventurist" Khrushchev years, Brezhnev wanted stability, and peace would help. 

4.  China

In 1969, strained relations between the USSR and China almost led to a nuclear war.  It was no longer possible for the USA to present itself as the defender of freedom against a global ‘communist’ threat. 

4.  China

China had broken relations with the USSR in 1962 over the Cuban Missiles Crisis, and in 1969 armed conflict had broken out along the Sino-Soviet border, which for a time raised the prospect of nuclear war. 

In 1969 Nixon criticised the USSR over the border conflict with China, and Brezhnev worried that China might seek America as an ally, and that the USSR would end up facing a hostile two-superpower alliance.  This fear of isolation made it important to reduce tensions with the USA. 

5.  Endorsed by the Leadership

When he came into office in 1969, President Nixon was determined to get out of the Vietnam War and to earn the title ‘peacemaker’. 

On 3 November 1969 he announced what became known as the ‘Nixon Doctrine’ (i.e. that, beyond existing treaties, it was up to each country to defend itself against communism), and he took steps to build better international relations:

• Soviet Ambassador to the US Anatoly Dobrynin had regular lunch meetings at the White House with Nixon and his foreign adviser Henry Kissinger.

• Kissinger used ‘shuttle diplomacy’ flying all over the world seeking understanding between different nations, and in particular engaging in ‘triangular diplomacy’ between America, Russia and China.

5.  Endorsed by the Leadership

On the face of it, Brezhnev appeared to distrust détente.  In 1964 he made it clear that razryadka did not mean an end to the struggle between communism and capitalism.  And he refused to link razryadka to other areas, such as human rights, or Soviet policies in the ‘Third World’. 

However, the Russian-born historian Vladislav Zubok (2009) found that Brezhnev’s personal views and attitudes were crucial in promoting razryadka in the Politburo.