b. détente
Under détente, Henry Kissinger's enduring achievement during the Nixon and Ford administrations, both sides in the Cold War accepted parity and stability as the goals of U.S.-Soviet diplomacy. Such acceptance had been built into arms limitation negotiations, and in the summer of 1975 the United States joined thirty-four other nations in Helsinki, Finland, for the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. The Helsinkl Accords signed at that gathering recognized the boundaries of Europe that had been established after World War I but contested during the Cold War. This recognition of communist governments in the Eastern bloc, a significant achievement for the Soviets, left President Ford and other Western leaders vulnerable to the charge that they had surrendered the Cold War. Nonetheless, the agreement was consistent with the goals of détente.