Bibliography
1. Hammond, Paul J. Cold War and Détente. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovahovich, 1975
2. W. Laird Kleine-Ahlbrandt. Europe Since 1945:Conflict to Community. St. Paul: West Publishing Company, 1993
3. McWilliams, Wayne C. The World Since 1945. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Pub., 1986
4. Rubinstein, Alvin Z. Soviet Foreign Policy. Third ed. London: Scott Foresman and Company, 1989
5. Wegs, Robert J. Europe Since 1945. 2nd ed. London: Macmillan, 1984
What Were the Limits of the 'Thaw' Introduced by Khrushchev After he had Succeeded to Power in the USSR, and What Factors Caused its Failure as a Remedy for the Cold War?
The death of Stalin on the 5 of March 1953 introduced a new era to the Soviet Union and its communist government. After all, Stalin ruled the Soviet empire without any tolerance far reaching the soviet society. Even though Stalin built a great empire, he made a great impact in the organizational, psychological, and economical features that have survived until this day.
As Nikita Khrushchev came slowly to power after Georgi Malenkov's colleagues were not willing to let him hold the same power as Stalin did, so did De-Stalinization. De-Stalinization was the attempt to break away from the Stalin's method of thinking and not only internal, but foreign government policy in order to create a more relax and less oppressive type of government. Once Stalin died, the remaining leaders, mainly Khrushchev and Malenkov also known as the collective leadership, faced mayor problems. After all in the past thirty-six years of Soviet rule no clear procedures of a change of leadership had been established or prepared for this event. As Khrushchev came to power he initiated a reassessment of the Stalin period. Consequently, De-Stalinization or the 'thaw' of the Cold War begun, yet it was frozen in 1964...
Just when was detente?
To say that Detente ended in 1964 and did not begin again until 1985 is a grave error and ignores the most important aspects of the era of detente, most notably from 1968-1975. What about the Harmel Report of 67? Ostpolitik? The various treaties signed from the Outer Space Treaty of 67 to the landmark SALT I of 1972? The economic and scientific breakthroughs in cooperation never before imagined during Khruschev;s time? Is the Helsinki Agreement of 1975 not a part of detente? Certainly to ignore this is to rewrite history.
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