Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Davy, Richard

Titel

1967: Détente, but what was it?

Ist Teil von

• Defrosting the Cold War and Beyond, 2023, Vol.1, p.48-56

Auflage

1

Ort / Verlag

Routledge

Erscheinungsjahr

2023

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Amid strains in the Western alliance, the Harmel Report committed Nato to combining military security with détente. The concept was dogged by controversy: would it appease or subvert the Soviet bloc, strengthen or weaken it? Would the West go soft? Could there be security in Europe without respect for human rights? Amid strains in the Western alliance, the Harmel Report committed Nato to combining military security with détente. In January 1967 Romania caused consternation by opening diplomatic relations with West Germany. This provoked an angry Polish regime to gather East Germany and the Soviet Union in support of what became known as the "Warsaw Package". For the purposes of the Helsinki story it is important to distinguish between superpower détente and European détente. At the superpower or global level between the Soviet Union and the United States détente was primarily an attempt to regulate the arms race and avoid stumbling into war. The West German Christian Democrats were particularly vocal critics of détente while in opposition because they thought that détente meant accepting the division of Germany and the permanent loss to Poland of their former eastern lands. The European stage, therefore, seemed to be set for a gradual shift of emphasis from hard to soft power.