IN BRIEF: LET'S NOT BE DELUDED ABOUT DETENTE - Stanley R Rader - August 1977

Stanley R Rader

Two years ago the Helsinki Conference ended on a note of enthusiasm bordering on euphoria. The accords reached there by 38 European nations plus Canada and the United States were heralded by many in the Western world as the opening of a new era in the relations between the West and the Soviet bloc. Detente was working , or so we were told; the cold war was but a relic of the past, or so the revisionists claimed; and soon the Soviet-led world would be liberalized from within as the promises concerning human rights were fulfilled. Today, delegates of these same nations are meeting again in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, to review the last two years in light of the accords reached earlier. But even the most naive observer can recognize that thus far only the U.S.S.R. and its satellites have benefited from the Helsinki agreements reached two years ago. - Information Supplied By: Herbert W Armstrong Library