The Soviet Union had no intention of respecting the human rights conditions and when dissidents tried to remind Brezhnev and the Politburo of their Helsinki obligations they were swiftly dealt with exiled or declared insane and locked away. The ringleaders of a Czech dissident group, Charter 77, including the future president of the Czech Republic, the playwright, Václav Havel, were imprisoned. A fan of The Beatles, Havel was said to be not so much a Leninist as a Lennonist. The freedom of movement clause was also blatantly ignored while Western protests were brushed aside.
SALT I also began to unravel. The agreement, signed in 1972, allowed for the modernization of existing weapons, a clause which both the USA and the Soviet Union exploited, subtly at first, then increasingly less so. More talks were needed. The SALT II discussions began in 1977, but even while talks were underway the Soviet Union increased spending on nuclear armament, while the Americans began placing short-range missiles in Europe, despite strong opposition, most notoriously from the women of Greenham Common in Berkshire in England. Nonetheless, SALT II was signed two years later in June 1979, but by then relations between the superpowers were at such low ebb, the treaty was never ratified.
Situations in other parts of the world also helped unravel the spirit of détente. The countries of the Middle East were allying themselves to one or the other of the superpowers. In Egypt, Anwar al-Sadat looked to his sponsor, the Soviet Union, to retrieve Arab territory lost to Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967. But the Soviets were unwilling to be drawn further into Middle Eastern tensions.
Yom Kippur War: Israeli prisoners, 1973
Frustrated by the lack of Soviet assistance, Sadat launched a surprise attack on Israel. The day was 6 October 1973, the Jewish Day of Atonement or ‘Yom Kippur’. The joint Egyptian and Syrian attack made initial headway (taking many prisoners, as pictured above), but the Israelis regrouped and fought back. The USA and the Soviet Union supplied arms and aid to the Israelis and the Arabs respectively while trying to negotiate a ceasefire. The ceasefire came about at the end of October after Nixon had placed his forces on full nuclear alert. The superpowers had failed to work together, reverting back to supporting opposing sides and bringing into question their commitment to détente. Following the Yom Kippur War the Arabs, resentful of American aid to Israel to the tune of $2 billion, restricted the supply of oil, causing price increases and economic chaos in the West.
Anwar al-Sadat and Menachem Begin, 1978
Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, U.S. News & World Report Magazine Collection
In 1977 Sadat visited Israel and held talks with the Israeli prime minister, Menachem Begin (pictured above), during which Sadat formally recognized the state of Israel and managed to retrieve some of the Arab territory lost to Israel in 1967. The Camp David talks, mediated by the new US president, Jimmy Carter, had no room for the Soviets, who felt angered by their isolation. This further damaged détente. Sadat and Begin jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize but their harmony upset Arab nationalists and on 6 October 1981 Sadat was assassinated.
In 1970 the world’s first freely elected Marxist government came to power in Chile with Salvador Allende as president. Alarmed by this development the USA officially stopped aid to Chile and, unofficially, the CIA organized a series of covert operations intended to undermine Allende’s power. The economy stagnated and, as planned by the USA, unrest paralyzed the country. In September 1973 General Augusto Pinochet seized power in a coup. Allende was killed and Pinochet, ruling as a dictator, ordered the execution of Allende’s supporters, many of whom were rounded up in football stadiums and shot. When the CIA’s role in bringing down Allende came to light President Ford was heavily criticized for undermining a democratically elected government.
In Iran, the Shah pursued a policy of modernization and Westernization which, although often successful, benefited only the privileged few. Brought to power by the USA in 1953, the Shah’s ruthlessness against the majority of the population brought no condemnation from the USA, which continued to send him aid and support in return for oil and a fierce anti-communist stance. But in January 1979, with the tide turning against him, the Shah was forced to flee. In his place the Ayatollah Khomeini established Iran as an Islamic republic and denounced the USA as the ‘Great Satan’. The Shah’s supporters were, like they had been in Chile, arrested and executed. Islamic (or Sharia) law was introduced and the process of Westernization reversed.
In November 1979, a group of Iranian students kidnapped sixty-six Americans in the US embassy in Tehran. Threats, counter-threats and negotiations all failed and the situation reached stalemate. In April 1980 Carter sent in US helicopters in a daring rescue mission that failed, humiliating Carter, undermining his position and greatly contributing to his electoral defeat in November that year.