Political Policies Between The

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both powers. It was the failure to satisfy these expectations which led to its demise. Kissinger suggested that "détente, with all its weaknesses, should be judged not against some ideal but against what would have happened in its absence. Détente did not cause the Soviet arms build-up, nor could it have stopped it. However, it may have slowed it down or made it more benign" (Garthoff 1994:1123). Perhaps détente could be viewed, not as a method of preventing or deterring tension which might lead to war, but as a way of postponing their effect until the United States could more effectively deal with them. By 1976, détente was a controversial term with both left and right hands of the disagreement criticizing its development. With the Administration of Jimmy Carter, a campaign for restoring confidence in government institutions and reforming American foreign policy was implemented (Froman 1991:74). President Carter appointed Zbigniew Brzezinski as National Security Adviser and Cyrus ...

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human rights high on the political agenda. America began to place pressure on the USSR's domestic policy in regards to the treatment of Russia's minority groups. Carter's crusade to liberalize Communist societies through external pressure actually jeopardized American-Soviet relations. The already inflamed détente was further compromised by the Jackson Amendment of 1974, which fought Moscow to open emigration of Soviet Jews. This event humiliated the Soviet Union by the interference of the United States in Soviet internal affairs producing a hostile Kremlin. Jimmy Carter spoke grandly about his "ultimate goal, the elimination of all nuclear weapons from earth" (Isaacs, Downing 1988:354). ...

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