Détente is a French term, meaning literally “a general relaxing”. It was a policy that started in the early seventies during which the United States and the Soviet Union attempted to build diplomatic trust and limit nuclear proliferation. Both countries had their reasons for undertaking negotiations. The Soviets were losing their alliance with the Chinese while the US sought to end the Vietnam War. Both sides had also realized that MAD made diplomacy a necessity. While JFK had created a few treaties, the Nixon administration was the true champion behind détente. Nixon and the Soviet premier held summits at which they limited their own nuclear capabilities with treaties like SALT 1 and SALT 2. However, proxy wars continued in Asia and the Middle East and both sides still had very real nuclear capabilities. Détente was effectively ended in 1979 by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
For much of the Soviet Union's existence, a Marxist party called the PDPA controlled the Afghan government and depended heavily on Soviet aid. Then, in the early seventies, an insurrection occurred as different groups of rebel factions rebelled in remote areas around the country. These groups, notably the Mujahideen, quickly gained wide support from countries ranging from the UK to China. A full scale invasion by the Soviets followed, who sought to preserve their influence in the region. The US viewed the invasion by the Soviets an attempt to spread communism while negating the will of the governed. Relations with the Russians became quite strained. The Russians had their own reasons to be angry, as the US happily supplied the rebels through the Pakistani Secret Service in what became known as Operation Cyclone. This new war depleted the resources of the Soviet Union in what came to be the Russian equivalent of Vietnam. The Soviet Union was finally on the receiving end of the sort of situations they had precipitated in Latin American. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan effectively ended the Détente policy between the two Cold War Powers, while simultaneously hastening the Soviet's rapid demise.
