The world ‘detente’ means the condition of relaxation of international tensions among nations leading to thaw in the cold war. It means decline in the tensions of cold war. The first sign of real detente between East and West came in the early 1970s, stimulated probably by the continuing fear of nuclear war and the horrors of Vietnam.
There were specific motives of the different powers for detente. China was anxious about her isolation in international politics and worsening relations with Russia. America felt that the policy she persuaded in Vietnam had to be revised and a policy of peaceful co¬existence needs to be adopted. Russia had also changed her thinking. She wanted to reduce expenditure on defence so as to increase the standard of living of the Russian people and that of people in the satellite states. There was unrest in Poland in the early 1970’s which threatened to destabilize the communist bloc. At that time, Russia was on bad terms with China.
Willie Brandt, the Vice-Chancellor of West Germany, wanted to develop better relations with the East European countries through the policy known as Ostpolitik. The most important factor was the fear of the Western States who were worried that they would be in the front line if nuclear war broke out.