ABSTRACT
By the mid-1970s it was clear that Kissinger’s policy of détente hadfailed [Doc. 5, p. 131]. It had rested on the assumption that a linkagecould be established. Washington’s improved relations with Moscow would depend on Moscow’s willingness not to challenge Washington in the Third World. SALT I and increasing Russian-American trade should satisfy Moscow. It did not. Brezhnev could not resist helping America’s enemies to press home their advantage. In Vietnam, the communist victory in 1975 owed much to the arms supplied by the Soviet Union. In Africa, Cuba and the Soviet Union embarrassed the United States. The volatility of Third World politics began to reveal that the two superpowers were no longer masters there. The USA and the Soviet Union simply did not possess the economic power to ensure that their will was done. Furthermore, western Europe and Japan were developing rapidly and demanding a greater say in international economic policy.
