Missiles Versus Detente : Germany

Whereas the process of European integration continued steadily in the West, the transition from the 1970s, the decade of detente, to the y°0s was marked by fresh conflicts in Eastern Europe. e Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the imposition of artial law in Poland and the emplacement of new ^mediate-range missiles (SS-20) in the Soviet on Wrlr— J the climate of East-West relations.

NATO reacted to this serious upset of the balance of security by deciding that it, too, would introduce new missiles as from 1983. But at the same time it proposed arms control negotiations to the Soviet Union. This was the “two-track” decision. In protest at the invasion of Afghanistan, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Norway and the Federal Republic refused to take part in the Moscow Summer Olympics (1980). The United States tried a new initiative, the “zero” solution, by which the Soviet Union would remove its intermediate-range missiles while NATO would promise not to deploy its Pershingll and the new cruise missiles.