Detente means a period of strained relationships between one party and another with each trying to gain certain ends.
Nixon had this type of relationship with the Soviet Union shortly after he gained office in 1969. He started the talks on limitation of arms. An interim pact was signed in Helsinki, Finland, and later taken to the U.S.S.R. In 1972 by Nixon and Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev. Brezhnev visited the U.S. The following year where Nixon and he signed the nuclear nonaggression pact as well as several agreements for technology, science, and cultural exchanges. Nixon again visited the U.S.S.R. In 1974, but he and Brezhnev did not come to any final agreements regarding limiting proliferation of nuclear weapons.
As regards China, Nixon conducted a detente with that state too. He lifted the anti-Chinese embargo restrictions in 1971. In return, Mao allowed American athletes to be officially welcomed in their country.
Kissinger secretly visited Beijing in July 1971 where he met Mao and Zhou Enlai and discussed diplomatic issues such as those concerning Taiwan and Vietnam....
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