![]() In a move designed to win approval from American farmers, Nixon suggested to the Soviets that they purchase American grain. The agreement called for peaceful co-existence, the avoidance of military confrontations, and no claims of spheres of influence. Four days later, the two men signed the Basic Principles of Relations between the United States and the U.S.S.R. On May 22, Nixon and Brezhnev signed agreements in Moscow that curbed the arms race for the first time. A summit between Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev was scheduled, and results from SALT I were finally reached. The prospect of improved relations between its two most formidable enemies caused concern in the Kremlin. To advance the process, the Chinese invited Nixon to visit, which he did in February 1972, publicly shaking hands with Mao, and being toasted by Zhou in the Great Hall of the People.Īlthough the trip did not result in many practical steps, it did show that China and the United States had common interests. Such ongoing issues as Vietnam and Taiwan were discussed. ![]() ![]() With the ice seemingly broken, Kissinger secretly visited Beijing in July 1971 and met Mao and Zhou Enlai. With Mao's approval, the invitation was extended and the American athletes became the first from their country to be officially welcomed in decades. The next day, the American team captain proposed to the Chinese captain that the Chinese invite them into their country for a match. A member of the American team mistakenly boarded a bus carrying members of the Chinese team, resulting in the first interaction between team members. In that same month, a minor incident occurred in Japan, where the world table tennis championships were taking place. The United States lifted its trade embargo with China, which had been in place since the start of the Korean War. After an internal struggle within the Chinese Central Committee, those favoring continued contact carried the day. However, like the Americans, some Chinese leaders saw the advantages of a rapprochement. The Chinese were publicly indignant and privately cancelled the next round of talks. Suddenly, at the end of April, Nixon intensified the conflict by bombing Cambodia to fight the North Vietnamese-supported Khmer Rouge guerillas. Nixon was attempting the Vietnamization of the Vietnam War, which meant withdrawing American troops and replacing them in combat with South Vietnamese. SALT I negotiations were being held in early 1970 with the Soviets while secret talks were going on with the Chinese. Secret back channels of communication were opened through Pakistan and Romania, sending word to the Chinese that the United States was interested in ending its policy of attempting to politically isolate the PRC. His national security advisor, Henry Kissinger, took the same view. Nixon concluded, despite the origins of his political career in virulent anti-communist activities, that the tension between the Soviet Union and China held promise for the United States. The falling out did not go unnoticed in Washington, D.C. By the late 1960s, a million Soviet troops faced a million Chinese troops across the Ussuri River, the easternmost part of the border between those countries. When they withdrew their support of China's nuclear weapons program, the Chinese proceeded on their own, exploding their first atomic bomb in 1964 and a Hydrogen Bomb in 1967. Over time, the Soviets decided that Mao was unreliable and that China was a potential rival. Joseph Stalin had not backed Mao Tse-tung (Mao Zedong) against the nationalists during World War II, and his insistence that China pay cash for weapons during the Korean War was a source of grievance. Despite the fear many Americans had about monolithic communism, the two supposed allies had never been especially close. Soviet relations with the People's Republic of Chinaĭétente could probably not have taken place, and certainly wouldn't have assumed the form that it did, without the rift that developed between the world's two primary communist regimes, the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China (PRC). The activities of President Ronald Reagan returned tensions to a fever pitch. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 effectively closed that chapter of the Cold War. and Soviet Union, but differences in outlook led to an increasing number of conflicts. One period of relaxation developed in the early 1970s and became known as "Détente," a French word meaning "release of tensions." It was hoped that the new relationship would herald a permanent improvement in relations between the U.S. ![]() During the course of the Cold War, tensions rose and fell many times. ![]()
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