<P> Détente ended after the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, which led to the United States boycott of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow . Ronald Reagan's election as president in 1980, based in large part on an anti-détente campaign, marked the close of détente and a return to Cold War tensions . In his first press conference, President Reagan said "Détente's been a one - way street that the Soviet Union has used to pursue its aims ." </P> <P> The most obvious manifestation of détente was the series of summits held between the leaders of the two superpowers and the treaties that resulted from these meetings . In the early 1960s, before détente, the Partial Test Ban Treaty had been signed on August 5, 1963 . Later in the decade, the Outer Space Treaty, in January 1967, and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, July 1968, were two of the first building blocks of détente . These early treaties were signed all over the globe . </P> <P> The most important treaties were not developed until the Nixon Administration came into office in 1969 . The Political Consultative Committee of the Warsaw Pact sent an offer to the West, urging them to hold a summit on "security and cooperation in Europe". The West agreed and talks began towards actual limits in the nuclear capabilities of the two superpowers . This ultimately led to the signing of the SALT I treaty in 1972 . This treaty limited each power's nuclear arsenals, though it was quickly rendered out - of - date as a result of the development of MIRVs . In the same year that SALT I was signed, the Biological Weapons Convention and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty were also concluded . Talks on SALT II also began in 1972 . </P> <P> Brezhnev however at the start of the period in his speeches to the Politburo, was intent on using the period of relaxed tensions to prepare for Soviet expansion in the 1980s . </P>

This u.s. president became the first to ever visit china setting off a period of détente