Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

1 results

  • Bibliographic Essay

  • Warren I. Cohen, University of Maryland, Baltimore
  • Book:
    The New Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations
    Published online:
    05 June 2013
    Print publication:
    13 May 2013, pp 343-356

  • Summary

    Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, like all postwar American leaders, sought a stable world order in which American interests would be preserved. They wanted to end the asymmetry between Washington and Moscow, to be free to act as quickly and ruthlessly in pursuit of American interests as they imagined the Soviet Politburo acted. From the Kremlin, Leonid Brezhnev and his colleagues looked at the United States with growing disdain. The Soviets were troubled by the Nixon administration's effort to obtain funding for deployment of an anti-ballistic missile system. Perhaps the most serious problem the United States faced in the 1970s was posed by the decline in its economic power, especially as aggravated by the policies of the Johnson and Nixon administrations. The Soviets pressed hard for détente with Western Europe. Under the leadership of Ronald Reagan, the American people were prepared to mortgage the future of their children in a renewed effort to win the Cold War.