U.S.-Soviet Relations in The 1980's: A New Era of Detente

Abstract

Never before in history has the world seen such a revolution in a relationship involving the world's military superpowers. Focusing attention less on the inevitability of conflict between the "imperialists" and the "communists", the governments of the United States and the Soviet Union have reached a relationship based on interdependence and mutual trust that is unprecedented in history. And, much of the credit for this must be accorded to the skillful diplomatic bargaining between Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and President Ronald Reagan. In five major superpower summits spanning a four-year period, they have accomplished what countless previous leaders have not. The United States and the Soviet Union have, for the first time, entered an era of detente, that has irreversibly changed the nature of superpower diplomacy.