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By the end of the 1960s, the United States and Soviet Union faced a choice: slow down their Cold War competition -- a process that would be called détente -- or continue an arms race that could end in all-out war.
In 1969 a new U.S. president, Richard Nixon, came to power. Nixon had new ideas about how to make the Cold War less dangerous. He was ready to accept the Soviet Union as America\'s nuclear equal. In Moscow, Communist Party chief Leonid Brezhnev wanted to relax Cold War tensions with America in a policy that would be called détente.
Meanwhile, Willy Brandt improves the relationship between East and West Germany. He was the first chancellor who visited East Germany, Moscow and Poland.
Brandt\'s actions eased tensions between the two Germanys -- but they also worried the United States, which feared it would lead to German nationalism.
Two weeks after Nixon\'s return from Moscow, men working for his re-election campaign were arrested for breaking into the Washington headquarters of the Democratic Party. It was the start of a major scandal: Watergate. In August 1974, facing impeachment over the Watergate scandal, Nixon resigned as U.S. president and was replaced by Gerald Ford. The Soviet leadership was astounded by Nixon\'s downfall. By April 1975, the remaining Americans in Saigon fled.
Despite differences over human rights, an agreement was signed and U.S.-Soviet détente was under way. The most public symbol of the new relationship between the rival superpowers was the Apollo-Soyuz project. In space, cooperation was replacing years of Cold War confrontation.
But when Jimmy Carter became President the détente was on its way to stand still. He was an very unsure politician without any experiences in foreign affairs. He was led by his advisors.
When the Soviets replaced their old SS-4 rockets through SS-20 rockets, the USA became nervous and therefore dealed with the NATO to enlarge their expenditures for defence systems. Throughout disturbances in Afghanistan, a drunken Brezknev decided to intervene in Afghanistan. Carter saw this as an aggressive provocation and threatened with intervention.
Soviets lowered their troops in Afghanistan and the crisis disappeared.
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