By 1981, détente was dead, the victim of overoptimism by its proponents in Washington and presumptive behavior by Moscow. That it waxed and waned came as no surprise to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who were skeptical all along of whether détente would last, let alone fundamentally alter East-West relations. Toward the end of his Presidency, Jimmy Carter reluctantly agreed and initiated upward adjustments in the military budget. The "Carter buildup” was a limited affair, however, and did not go much beyond bolstering capabilities for the Rapid Deployment Force. As useful as these increases may have been, they were not enough, in the opinion of the Chairman, General David C. Jones, USAF, to offset the gains made by the Soviets in nuclear and conventional arms over the past decade or to reverse the "long term decline in our defense spending.”

By January 1977, when President Jimmy Carter took office, détente was beginning to show unmistakable signs of wear. In both Washington and Moscow, opposition to further accommodations with the other side was on the rise. While Brezhnev had managed to force the hard-liners to "eat” the Vladivostok accords, the prevailing mood within the Soviet elite was that the United States was losing the arms race and that the correlation of forces had turned in favor of the Kremlin.1 Many in the West—including the Joint Chiefs—agreed that U.S. military credibility was at its lowest ebb since World War II and that the balance of power was in a precarious state. Never, it seemed, had America’s prestige been lower or its status as a superpower so uncertain.

Détente lasted for roughly 7 years, from the signing of the SALT I agreements in 1972 until the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. During that time, with the exception of the 1973 October War in the Middle East, there were no repetitions of the tense encounters that had been so commonplace in the 1950s and 1960s. From all outward appearances, détente was a huge success. Barely below the surface, however, the situation was different. The Soviet military buildup in both conventional and strategic nuclear forces continued, and with it came increased Soviet activity in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. Often employing Cuban "proxies,” the Soviets seemed more intent than ever on extending their power and influence into new areas where conditions were ripe for Communist penetration and U.S. interests were most vulnerable.