Recognizing China
· Pres. Nixon attempted to improve U.S. ties with China by visiting China in 1972.
· Pres. Carter established official diplomatic ties with China in 1979.
A Brief Thaw in the Cold War
Détente:
· In 1972, Pres. Nixon became the first President to visit the Soviet Union since the Cold War began.
· Nixon was practicing the policy of détente, or the easing of tensions.
· The U.S. and the Soviet Union soon signed the SALT Agreement, which limited the number of nuclear missiles that they produced.
· The relationship between the U.S. and the Soviet Union continued to improve.
Examples:
- Trade between the U.S. and the Soviet Union increased.
- In 1975, U.S. and Soviet astronauts conducted a joint space mission.
- In 1979, Pres. Carter worked out the details of the SALT II Treaty with Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.
Détente ends:
· In December of 1979, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.
· Pres. Carter withdrew U.S. support for the SALT II Treaty, ended all grain sales to the Soviet Union, and led an international boycott of the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow.
· Pres. Reagan increased military spending and pursued a weapons program, known as Star Wars, that could shoot down missiles from space
· This helped to destroy the economy of the Soviet Union, as they were unable to match the U.S. spending on the military and provide for their citizens at the same time.
· Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev began a policy called glasnost, in which he allowed more freedom of speech and the press.
· Gorbachev also signed an arms control treaty, called the INF Treaty, with Pres. Reagan in 1987.
· Eventually, however, Gorbachev was forced to resign in 1991, and the Soviet Union ceased to exist.
· As a result, many Soviet republics eventually gained their independence, such as Lithuania, Ukraine, Georgia, and Uzbekistan.
