The Untold History of the United States by Stone Oliver & Kuznick Peter

Author:Stone, Oliver & Kuznick, Peter [Stone, Oliver]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Published: 2012-10-30T04:00:00+00:00

Augusto Pinochet greeting Kissinger, June 1976. After overthrowing Allende in a CIA-aided coup ordered by Nixon himself, Pinochet seized power and proceeded to murder more than 3,200 opponents and jail and torture tens of thousands more. Kissinger saw to it that the United States quickly recognized and provided aid to the murderous regime.

Nixon followed up his triumphal February 1972 visit to China with a May visit to the Soviet Union. Wary of the United States’ new friendship with China, the Soviets greeted him warmly. In Moscow, Nixon and General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT), the first strategic arms agreement, which restricted each side to two defensive antiballistic missile systems and placed limits on the number of offensive ICBMs and submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs). The treaty failed to slow the growth of nuclear warheads because it placed no restraints on multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs)—missiles that could carry several bombs aimed at separate targets. Nor did it do anything to roll back the massive existing arsenals that gave each side the ability to destroy the other several times over. But as a first step, the agreement was of great symbolic importance. Brezhnev and Nixon also initiated the process that resulted in recognition of Eastern Europe’s borders in return for pledges to respect human rights in the Helsinki Accords of 1975. They issued a joint communiqué and a statement of “Basic Principles.” The first of those principles stated that both countries “will proceed from the common determination that in the nuclear age there is no alternative to conducting their mutual relations on the basis of peaceful coexistence.”89 Nixon addressed a joint session of Congress upon his return, saying:

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.