How Did Nixon Improve Their Relationship With The Soviet Union

Their were various points throughout the Nixon and Carter administrations where US both continued the Cold War diplomacy and clashed with communist nations. Their were also times were the US broke social boundaries and departed from the Cold War norms by attempting to restore a good relationship with the Soviet Union.
 During the Nixon administration the Cold War diplomacy continued through the Vietnam war. During the earlier years as president he continued to fight the Vietnam war, which was a fight between the US backed South Vietnamese and the Chinese and Soviet backed North Vietnamese. Through the war many issues between communism and democracy arose, and the former HUAC member, Richard Nixon, was definitely not going to put them aside. Nixon continued to annoy different communist power, for example, “...Nixon irritated Mao by publicly justifying his costly ABM program as a defense against ‘the Chinese threat’...”(Fink, 157). Through the different actions Nixon took, he continued to spite communist powers when he could and therefore upheld Cold War tensions.
Through Nixon and Brezhnev the US and Soviet Union were able to step into the detente, which was a period where Cold War tensions were relieved between the two nations. Both nations wanted nuclear arms restrictions and to reduce the nuclear threat, because they both had enough weapons to mutually destroy each other. On November 17, 1969, “...the United States and Soviet Union finally launched the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT) talks...” (Fink, 151). Through this the Nixon administration continued to relieve tensions between the Soviet Union the United States therefore departing from the Cold War