Today we speak with Richard Crowder, the author of “Détente – the chance to end the Cold War”.

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Between 1968 and 1975, there was a subtle thawing of relations between East and West, for which Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev coined the name Détente. 

The leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union, Richard Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev, hoped to forge a new relationship between East and West. 

We talk about some of the key moments such as where Henry Kissinger, Nixon’s Secretary of State agreed the end to the war in Vietnam, the 1973 Arab Israeli war where the world stood on the brink of armed conflict between the Soviet Union and the United States and the Helsinki Accords where the agreement to uphold human rights unleashed dissident movements against the Communist Parties of Eastern Europe.

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I am delighted to welcome Richard Crowder to our Cold War conversation…

There’s further information on this episode in our show notes, plus a book giveaway which can also be found as a link in your podcast app here. https://coldwarconversations.com/episode149/

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0:00 Introduction and Patreon appeal by Ian Sanders

1:06 Introduction to Richard Crowder and his book "Detente"

5:07 Overview of global social and economic changes and politics in the late 1960s

10:11 Richard Crowder discusses the flow of events from 1968 to 1975

14:05 Breakthrough with China and its impact on the Cold War

20:14 The need for the Berlin 4 power agreement

32:25 Discussion on the Paris Peace Accords and the end of US involvement in Vietnam

40:20 The Yom Kippur War and the risk of a superpower confrontation

44:52 Nixon's resignation and the Watergate scandal

49:34 Ford and Brezhnev's meeting in Vladivostok and the final summit of the détente period

57:42 Closing remarks and patron acknowledgements

58:25 How to support the podcast

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