Détente
![Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin (in front) next to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson (behind) during the Glassboro Summit Conference.](/Images/godic/202501/10/Kosygin_at_the_Glassboro_Summit1136.jpg")
![Leonid Brezhnev (left) and Richard Nixon (right) during Brezhnev's June 1973 visit to Washington; this was a high-water mark in détente between the United States and the Soviet Union.](/Images/godic/202501/10/Leonid_Brezhnev_and_Richard_Nixon_talks_in_19731136.png")
Détente (French pronunciation: [detɑ̃t], meaning "relaxation") is the easing of strained relations, especially in a political situation. Spanish uses the same word, detente, without the accent with the force of pronunciation in the second syllable (ten) to mean "stop" (second person singular imperative).