Detente by robert shipma

Détente (a French word meaning release from tension) is the name given to a period of improved relations between the United States and the Soviet Union that began tentatively in 1971 and took decisive form when President Richard M. Nixon visited the secretary-general of the Soviet Communist party, Leonid I. Brezhnev, in Moscow, May 1972.Both countries stood to gain if trade could be increased and the danger of nuclear warfare reduced. In addition, Nixon–a candidate for reelection–was under fire at home from those demanding social change, racial equality, and an end to theVietnam War. The trip to Russia, like his historic trip to China a few months earlier, permitted him to keep public attention focused on his foreign policy achievements rather than his domestic problems. Nixon’s trip to China had also heightened the Soviets’ interest in détente; given the growing antagonism between Russia and China, Brezhnev had no wish to see his most potent rivals close ranks against him.
http://www.memrise.com/course/84288/detente/