IRL 15, March 10, 2010

URL; http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/detente.htm

This is a general outline relating to detente, the period of relaxation of tension in the Cold War between the East and the West. According to this source, detente is associated with the relations between the US, the USSR, and China, and all three countries had their own way of carrying this out. One of the reasons is tied in somewhat with what we have learned in class - between East and West was a fear of nuclear holocaust, and the countries wished to prevent this and ease tensions. It says here that the horrors of Vietnam were one of the contributing factors to detente and the wish to carry it out, but this was never mentioned in class, at least not yet.

It says here China was worried about her relations with the USSR and what the US was going in Vietnam, the US found better ways of containing communism (peaceful relationship with USSR), and the USSR wished to improve her relationship with China, since the US was as well. Some ways in which these things were carried out were an establishment of a hot-line between the USSR and USA after the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1963, Strategic Arms Limitation Talks begin, and Nixon, who was later president, visited Moscow. The significance of this to what we've learned in class is that it gives me a better idea of what exactly detente was and that it was more a collection of actions taken to better world relations rather than one specific act or a state of mind, which was my original interpretation. The main limitation of this source is that it mentions nothing of the other European countries involved in the process, such as Germany and France, and only mentions the big three. The other details are important as well, as the whole picture is needed for better understanding of what exactly detente meant to Europe.