The Détente Deception

Soviet and Western bloc Competition and the Subversion of Cold War Peace

Douglas Rivero

• Publisher: University Press of America
• Year: 2012
• eBook ISBN: 9780761860440
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: 20th Century History
• Index: Politics & International Relations

The Détente Deception examines the competition between the U.S.-led Western bloc and the Soviet bloc in the less developed world during the final years of Détente. Rivero assesses whether or not the Soviet bloc pushed for strategic gains in the Third World and whether this contributed to the U.S. decision to abandon Détente in 1979. This view is articulated by many acclaimed scholars such as Stephen Walt (1992), John Gaddis (1997), and Vladislav Zubok (2007). They make the case that during the final years of Détente and throughout the 1980s, U.S. policy in places such as Nicaragua and Angola was a calculated response to Soviet aggression in the less-developed world.
This book challenges this position as the quantitative evidence points to U.S. aggression. Not only did the Western bloc push to maintain dominance over the Third World, archival evidence also suggests the US made significant efforts in Eastern Europe and Afghanistan during the final years of Détente to dismantle the Soviet bloc.

Table of contents

• List of Tables
• Abstract
• Chapter One Introduction and Methodology
• Chapter Two The Soviet Aggression Thesis and its Critics
• Chapter Three Soviet and Western Bloc Foreign Aid to the Less Developed World
• Chapter Four The Soviet Response in the Third World
• Chapter Five U.S. Response to the Soviet Threat in the Third World
• Chapter Six Consequences of Détente Collapse of the Soviet Union
• Chapter Seven Conclusion and Final Thoughts
• About the Author