Richard Nixon's Détente Foreign Policy

Détente was the foreign policy used by President Richard Nixon and his Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. This type of foreign policy was adopted from West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, which eased tension between West Germany and East Germany. The US created a new meaning of détente, which was for controlling communism or a different form of containment, this would be cheaper and different. This grew from a common urge to for stability among leaders who were being attacked at home,. Thus, the result of détente was to turn towards the Soviet Union and China. However, this led to strenuous relations between the US and its allies, which led to the end of détente. Détente would require Americans to view the Soviets as friendly negotiators rather than civil aggressors, and to turn to China to stabilize the international system. Arguably the only success of détente was Sino-American relations and a limit to arms such as the SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) I and ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems) Treaty in 1972. However, this made Sino-Russo relations distant. Resulting in an international community that was
This was displayed when the US approached NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) allies to allow US planes fly supplies to Israel they all denied except for Portugal. Comprehensively, détente was not a benefit towards the US’ foreign policy, where critics have accounted this as “neo-isolationism,” which is foolish globalism. Furthermore, détente arguably led to the US decreasing its allies and not being able to influence the world. Thus the US not only lost power, but also brought another competitor that created a multipolar world. The culminating end to détente was when President Jimmy Carter’s Secretary of State Cyrus Vance criticized Nixon-Kissinger’s détente because there was too much focus on the Soviet Union and