The U.S.S.R.: What Ever Happened to Détente?
(5 of 5) Nonetheless, there may still be hope for halting that disintegration and restoring some version of détente. The main reason is that it is overwhelmingly in the interests of both sides to do so. Both need peace to survive. Moreover, neither the U.S., with its recession, its dangerous inflation and its need to improve its conventional forces, nor the Soviet Union, with its economic stagnation and mounting consumer demands, can easily afford another round of the strategic arms race, one that would be unfettered by even the modest constraints of SALT. Says Bykov: “In a world where there are many shifts and realignments, there has got to be more political restraint on the part of both the U.S. and the Soviet Union.” Such rhetoric would be more reassuring if the U.S.S.R. were not waging a brutal war against the Afghan people, pouring weapons into the Yemens, and supporting Viet Nam’s takeover of Indochina. No wonder there is a resurgence of feeling in the U.S. that the Soviets canno
