On May 22, 1972, Richard Nixon began the first visit by an American president to the Soviet Union. In the end, heads of government signed a declaration on binational relations, which was soon subjected to severe tests. The two global players at the time — the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) — had plenty of nuclear arsenals to destroy each other. Given the immense capacity for destruction accumulated on both sides, it didn’t make much sense to continue the arms race.
Meeting in Budapest, Hungary, on March 17, 1969, the heads of government of the Warsaw Pact countries summoned all European nations to a conference on issues of security and cooperation in Europe. This is where the process of creating the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) began.
In search of military balance
Three years later, personal and intergovernmental contacts began. From May 22 to 30, 1972, US President Richard Nixon traveled to Moscow. Nixon had already visited the USSR in 1959, as vice president. Initially, he had placed high hopes on the then head of government of the USSR, Nikita Khrushchev, whose policy of detente he considered favorable to a world understanding.
In Moscow, in 1972, Nixon signed the treaties that would serve as the basis for the military balance between East and West. His interlocutor in Moscow was Leonid Brezhnev, whose rigid domestic policy was seen by Russians as a period of “stagnation”.
In foreign policy, at the same time that it propagated an opening and distension towards the West, it caused protests from the capitalist bloc against the so-called “Brezhnev doctrine”, which subjected the socialist countries to Soviet communism, under threat of armed intervention.
One of the main results of Nixon’s trip to Moscow was the signing of the agreement to reduce intercontinental anti-missile systems ABM (Anti-Ballistic-Missile-System). Through the Salt-I Treaty, a maximum ceiling on strategic offensive weapons was established. This did not result in disarmament, but at least in coordination of the arms race.
Intentions subjected to evidence
In addition to these treaties, the heads of government signed, on May 29, a “basic declaration on Soviet-American relations”, in which the two world powers pledged not to seek unilateral advantages at the expense of the other.
The signatories of the document should avoid conflict situations that could increase international tensions. The ultimate goal of this effort was general disarmament and the creation of an effective world security system.
It was a broad letter of intent, subjected in the following years to severe tests. Third World conflicts interfered with Soviet-American relations. The war between Egypt and Syria in October 1973, the USSR’s military support to North Vietnam, as well as the liberation movements of Mozambique and Angola, provoked new tensions between the two powers.
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