Overview

The administration of Richard M. Nixon presented an even more pressing argument to look at the U.S.-Soviet relationship in its broadest, global context. President Nixon created a secret, private channel of dialogue and negotiation between the President’s Assistant for National Security Affairs, Henry A. Kissinger, and the Soviet Ambassador in Washington, Anatoly F. Dobrynin. The documentary record of that channel is presented in its entirety in this volume, as well as a virtually complete record of the Moscow Summit. In his relations with Moscow, President Nixon insisted on linkage of other issues, e.g., Vietnam, the Middle East, South Asia, Arms Control, or trade, with improvements in U.S.-Soviet Relations. The President also employed triangular diplomacy—Nixon often referred to it as “the game”—to put pressure on the Soviet Union by improving U.S. relations with the People’s Republic of China, while denying to Soviet officials that he was doing so. Finally in 1972, Richard Nixon made his first Presidential visit to Moscow and signed a number of agreements with the Soviet Union that initiated a period of détente. These new initiatives and extensive connections between the two superpowers required a redesign of Foreign Relations coverage of the Soviet Union. The number of documents printed and the scope of their content were greatly expanded. There are five volumes for the Soviet Union within the Nixon-Ford subseries, 1969–1976, three of which document the crucial first Nixon Administration. These volumes document U.S.-Soviet relations worldwide and more accurately reflect the global nature of the Cold War.