History Fact Finder | Government and Politics - What Was Detente?

What was detente?

Detente (pronounced DAY-taunt) means the relaxing of tense relations between countries. The term was used during the 1960s and 1970s to describe efforts to decrease tensions between the U.S.S.R. (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; also called the Soviet Union) and the United States. After Nikita Khrushchev (1894-1971) became the leader of the U.S.S.R. in 1958, he adopted the policy of peacefully co-existing with noncommunist countries. Prior to this time, communist political philosophy dictated that communism (the system of government in which the state controls the economy and only one political party holds power) and capitalism (private ownership of the means of production) would have to wage war until one ideology was declared the winner. During the 1960s and 1970s, the Soviet Union and the United States reached a detente by signing a Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (1968), the Strategic Arms Limitation...

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