Hello, my name's Mr. Williams, and I'm going to be your history teacher for today.

This lesson is part of a series of lessons about the end of the Cold War, which focus on the years 1970 to 1991.

I'm really looking forward to teaching you today, so let's get started.

By the end of today's lesson, you will be able to explain why there was not a sustained improvement in US-Soviet relations after the Helsinki Accords.

There are four keywords essential to understanding today's lesson.

They are Detente, the relaxation of tensions between states which were previously hostile to one another.

Accords, formal agreements between two or more parties.

Human rights, the basic freedoms and protections that all people are entitled to simply because they're human.

And ratified, when a decision, treaty, or agreement is formally approved and confirmed making it official.

Our lesson today is split into three parts.

In the first part of the lesson, we're going to be learning about the Helsinki Accords, which many people consider to be the high point of Detente between the USA and the Soviets Union.

In 1973, Brezhnev, the leader of the USSR, and Nixon, the US president, met with the leaders of other NATO and Warsaw Pact nations in Helsinki, the capital of Finland.

Both the USA and USSR had committed to a policy of Detente, and the purpose of the meeting was to improve relations between the East and West during the Cold War.

Those attending the meeting in Helsinki hoped to build on the agreements that had been made in the previous year when the USA and the USSR had signed the SALT I agreement.

The SALT I agreement was one of the first to be signed during the period of Detente, and it included important limitations on arms and a commitment to greater cooperation between the two superpowers.

Let's take a moment to check your understanding.

True or false? When they met in Helsinki in 1973, Nixon and Brezhnev were committed to a policy of Detente.

Pause the video now and press play when you're ready to see the correct answer.

Okay, well done if you said that was true, but we need to be able to justify that response.

So on the screen are two justifications.

a says, "Nixon and Brezhnev wanted to build on the progress they had made when they signed SALT I in 1970." And justification b says, "Nixon and Brezhnev wanted to build on the progress they had made when they signed SALT I in 1972." Which of these justifications is correct? Pause the video now and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done if you said it was justification b, "Nixon and Brezhnev wanted to build on the progress they had made when they signed SALT I in 1972." On the 1st of August, 1975, the Helsinki Accords were signed by the leaders of 35 nations, including the USA, Canada, and 33 European countries, including the USSR.

The Accords took a long time to agree, and by the time they were signed, Gerald Ford had replaced Richard Nixon as US president.

Those who signed the Accords reached agreements concerning important international issues that were grouped into three key areas, which the organisers of the Helsinki conference referred to as baskets.

The key areas or baskets were European borders, international cooperation, and human rights.

Let's take a moment to check your understanding.

In what year were the Helsinki Accords signed? Was it a, 1972, b, 1973, c, 1974, or d, 1975? Pause the video now and press play when you're ready to see the correct answer.

Okay, well done if you said d, the Helsinki Accords were signed in 1975.

Let's do another quick check.

Which US president signed the Helsinki Accords? Was it a, Richard Nixon, b, Gerald Ford, or c, Jimmy Carter? Pause the video now and press play when you're ready to see the correct answer.

Okay, well done if you said that the correct answer was b, Gerald Ford, who had replaced Richard Nixon as US president.

The agreements made as part of the 1975 Helsinki Accords were organised into three key areas or baskets.

The key agreements covered in each basket were as follows.

European borders.

The nations that signed the Helsinki Accords agreed the borders in Europe and declared that these borders could not be altered by force.

International Corporation.

There was a call for closer cultural, economic, and scientific links between NATO countries and countries in the Warsaw Pact.

It was hoped that this would lead to closer political agreement.

And finally, human rights.

Each of the nations that sign the Accords agreed to respect human rights and basic freedoms, such as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and freedom of movement across Europe.

The agreements made about European borders in Basket 1 were particularly significant because it was the first time that the boundaries between East and West Germany and the borders of Soviet-controlled countries had been formally accepted.

Let's take a moment to check our understanding.

What was the focus of Basket 3? Pause the video now and press play when you're ready to see the correct answer.

Okay, well done if you said human rights.

Human rights was the focus of Basket 3.

Before the Accords were even signed, the spirit of cooperation that was agreed as part of Basket 2 was reflected in a joint US-Soviet space mission.

In July 1975, three American astronauts and two Soviet cosmonauts participated in the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, which involved a docking of an American Apollo spacecraft with a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft.

On the 17th of July, 1975, shortly after the two spacecraft successfully docked, images of American astronaut Thomas P.

Stafford and Soviet cosmonaut Alexei Leonov shaking hands in space were broadcast around the world.

Let's check your understanding.

What was the main aim of the 1975 US-Soviet joint space mission? Was it a, launching a satellite, b, docking an American spacecraft with a Soviet spacecraft, or c, building an international space station? Pause the video now and press play when you're ready to see the correct answer.

Okay, very well done if you said the correct answer was b, the main aim of the 1975 US-Soviet joint space mission was docking an American Apollo spacecraft with a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft.

To many people, the Helsinki Accords represented the high point of Detente and seemed to mark the beginning of a new period in international relations.

However, there were limitations.

For example, the Accords primarily focused on Europe and did not address broader global issues or conflicts outside of the European region.

Crucially, the Accords did little to address various underlying tensions, particularly concerning the issue of human rights.

The USA believed that promoting human rights in Soviet-controlled territory would undermine communist authority and weaken the USSR.

The USSR was concerned that organisations would be set up to monitor Soviets policies in its satellite states, but supported the commitment to human rights in Basket 3 to secure the recognition of its borders and the international corporation that could boost its economy.

The Accords were not legally binding, which meant that the provisions on human rights, while significant in principle, were not enforceable.

Let's take a moment to check your understanding.

Why did the USSR agree to the commitment to respect human rights in Basket 3 of the Helsinki Accords? Pause the video now and press play when you're ready to see a model response.

Okay, well done for your hard work on that question.

You were asked why did the USSR agree to the commitment to respect human rights in Basket 3 of the Helsinki Accords? And your answer could have included, "The USSR agreed to the commitment to support human rights in Basket 3 of the Helsinki Accords to secure the recognition of their borders and the international corporation that could boost the Soviet economy." Well done if your answer looks similar to the model answer on the screen.

In the USA, some people criticised President Ford for signing the Helsinki Accords due to the fact that they involved the recognition and acceptance of borders in place in Eastern Europe that the USSR had set up following World War II.

One commentator said that, "Mr. Ford flew halfway around the world to sign an agreement at Helsinki which placed the American seal of approval on the Soviet Empire in Eastern Europe." Let's check your understanding.

Is this true or false? Some people in the USA were angry that President Ford signed the Helsinki Accords.

Pause the video now and press play when you're ready to see the correct answer.

Okay, well done if you said that was true.

We need to be able to justify that response though, so on the screen are two justifications.

a says, "They were angry 'cause they did not believe the USA should commit to supporting human rights," and b says, "They were angry because they did not believe the USA should agree the borders of countries taken over by the USSR." Which of these justifications is correct? Pause the video now and press play when you're ready to see the correct answer.

Okay, well done if you said that justification b was correct, the people in the USA that criticised President Ford were angry because they did not believe that the USA should agree the borders of countries that had been taken over by the USSR.

We're now ready for the first practise task of today's lesson.

To what extent did the Helsinki Accords achieve their aim of improving relations between the East and West? I want you to complete the table and aim to identify two successes and two limitations.

Pause the video now, have a go at filling in the table, and press play when you're ready to see a model response.

Okay, very well done for your hard work on that first practise task.

You were asked to what extent did the Helsinki Accords achieve their aim of improving relations between the East and the West? And you were asked to complete the table with two examples of successes of the Helsinki Accords and two limitations.

So your completed table could look like the one on the screen.

For successes, you could have written, "The Accords agreed the borders in Europe which removed a source of conflict between the USA and the USSR." And you could also have written, "The Accords led to greater cooperation." And as an example of this, you could have written about the Apollo-Soyuz joint US-Soviet space mission in 1975.

In terms of limitations, you could have identified, "The Accords focused on Europe and did not address conflicts outside of the European region." And you could have gone on to identify that, "The Accords did not address underlying tensions, for example, different attitudes between the USA and the USSR towards human rights." Well done if your completed table looks similar to the one on the screen.

We're now ready to move on to the second part of our lesson in which we'll be learning about how the issue of human rights led to increasing tensions between the USA and the USSR.

After Helsinki, the issue of human rights continued to be a major source of tension between the USA and the USSR.

As part of the Helsinki Accords, the USSR had made a commitment to human rights which they had no intention of honouring.

Soviet Foreign Secretary, Andrei Gromyko, was reported to have said, "Who's the master of this house? We are the master, and it'll be up to us to decide how to act.

Who can force us?" Let's check your understanding.

After Helsinki, the USSR was committed to respecting human rights across all Soviet-controlled territory.

Is this true or false? Pause the video now and press play when you're ready to see the correct answer.

Okay, well done if you said that was false, but as ever, we need to be able to justify our responses, so on the screen are two justifications.

a says, "The USSR made no commitments to respecting human rights at Helsinki," and b says, "The USSR only made commitments to respecting human rights to secure recognition of their borders." Which of these statements is correct? Pause the video now and press play when you're ready to see the correct answer.

Okay, very well done if you said that the correct justification was b, "The USSR only made commitments to respecting human rights at Helsinki to secure recognition of their borders." After taking office in 1977, the new American president, Jimmy Carter, linked human rights to arms limitations as a key part of his foreign policy to pressure the Soviet Union.

Carter publicly criticised Soviet human rights abuses and made it clear that further advancements in arms control would be challenging if the Soviet Union continued to violate human rights.

Carter angered the Soviet's leader, Brezhnev, when he wrote a letter on the 5th of February, 1977, expressing his support for Andrei Sakharov, a former Soviet scientist who had been imprisoned in the USSR for campaigning for human rights.

Let's check your understanding.

Tension between the USA and the USSR over human rights increased after Jimmy Carter became president in 1977.

Is this true or false? Pause the video now and press play when you're ready to see the correct answer.

Okay, well done if you said that statement was true.

Let's see if you can justify that response.

On the screen are two justifications.

a says, "Carter criticised human rights abuses in the USSR and supported campaigners for human rights in Soviet territory." While b says, "Brezhnev publicly criticised Carter for American abuses of human rights." Which of these justifications is correct? Pause the video now and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Very well done if you selected justification a, "Carter criticised human rights abuses in the USSR and supported campaigners for human rights in Soviet territory." And this angered Brezhnev and increased tension between the USA and the USSR.

Following Carter's intervention, Brezhnev made an angry speech criticising him for interfering in Soviet affairs.

In response, various groups were set up in Eastern Europe known as Helsinki Groups to monitor the extent to which the USSR was keeping to the agreements made as part of the Helsinki Accords.

The Helsinki Groups joined President Carter and others in highlighting Soviet abuses of human rights, including a lack of free speech and imprisonment of opponents without a fair trial.

Increasingly, the issue of human rights was becoming a source of embarrassment for Brezhnev and an area of conflict in US-Soviet relations.

Let's take a moment to check your understanding.

What were Helsinki Groups? Pause the video, have a go at answering this question, and press play when you're ready to see a model response.

Okay, well done for your hard work on that question.

You were asked what were Helsinki Groups, and your answer could include, "Helsinki Groups were groups set up across Eastern Europe to monitor the extent to which the USSR was keeping to the agreements made as part of the Helsinki Accords.

The Helsinki Groups joined President Carter and others in highlighting Soviet abuses of human rights." Well done if you wrote something similar to the model answer on the screen.

You're now ready for the second practise task of the lesson.

I want you to explain why the issue of human rights contributed to increasing tensions between the USA and the USSR after 1975.

I want you to write one paragraph, and in that paragraph, you need to use the following words: Helsinki Accords, Jimmy Carter, abuses, and Helsinki Groups.

Pause the video now, have a go writing your paragraph, and press play when you're ready to compare your paragraph with a model response.

Okay, very well done for all of your hard work on that practise task.

You were asked to write a paragraph explaining why the issue of human rights contributed to increasing tensions between the USA and the USSR after 1975.

And your answer may include, "The USSR agreed to respect human rights as part of the Helsinki Accords, but they did not intend to honour this commitment.

When Jimmy Carter became US president in 1977, he criticised the USSR for human rights abuses and supported campaigners such as Andrei Sakharov.

Carter's support for human rights encouraged the Helsinki Groups that were set up to monitor the extent to which the USSR was keeping to the agreements made as part of the Helsinki Accords.

Criticism of their human rights record embarrassed the USSR and increased US-Soviet tensions." Well done for all of your hard work on that practise task and well done if your answer looks similar to the one that we've just gone through.

We're now ready to move on to the third and final part of this lesson in which we'll be learning about the SALT II agreement and the end of Detente.

Despite agreeing to arms limitations as part of the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty, or SALT I, in 1972, US and Soviet spending on arms increased and continued to increase even after the signing of the Helsinki Accords.

In the early 1970s, US military spending was around 70 to $80 billion annually.

By the end of the decade, it had increased to around $100 billion per year.

In the same period, Soviets military spending increased from around 70 to $75 billion a year to approximately 90 to $100 billion per year.

Let's take a moment to check your understanding.

The USA and USSR reduced their military spending after signing the Helsinki Accords.

Is this true or false? Pause the video now and press play when you're ready to see the correct answer.

Okay, well done if you said that was false, but let's see if you can justify that response.

So on the screen are two justifications.

a says, "The USA reduced their military spending after signing the Helsinki Accords, but the USSR did not," and justification b says, "Both the USA and the USSR increased their military spending after signing the Helsinki Accords." Which of these justifications is correct? Pause the video now and press play when you're ready to see the correct answer.

Okay, well done if you said that the correct answer was justification b, "Both the USA and the USSR continued to increase their military spending even after signing the Helsinki Accords." Talks to agree a second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty began in 1974, and in June, 1979, US President Jimmy Carter, and the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signed SALT II.

The terms of the treaty included a limit of 2,400 strategic nuclear delivery vehicles for each nation.

This included ICBMs, submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and heavy bombers.

A limit of 1,320 multiple independently targeted reentry vehicle, or MIRV, systems for each side.

A ban on the construction of new land-based ICBM launchers, and limits on the deployment of new types of strategic weapons.

SALT II had been agreed against a backdrop of increasing US-Soviet tensions.

In the USA, there was a growing belief that the Soviet government could not be trusted.

This was partly fueled by an increase in Soviet support for communist groups across the world, including in El Salvador, Nicaragua, both in Central America, and Angola.

There was also renewed concern about the 2000 Soviet troops stationed in Cuba.

Detente was coming under increasing pressure, and then on the 24th of December, 1979, the USSR shocked the world by invading Afghanistan.

Although SALT II had been signed, it had not been formally ratified by the US Senate at the time of the Soviet invasion.

President Carter felt he could no longer support the treaty and it was withdrawn from the Senate.

With this final breakdown of Detente, many said that a second Cold War was starting.

Let's take a moment to check your understanding.

Why did Carter prevent SALT II from being ratified by the US Senate in 1979? Was it a, because the USSR invaded Nicaragua? Was it b, the USSR invaded El Salvador? Was it c, the USSR invaded Afghanistan? Or was it d, the USSR invaded Angola? Pause the video now and press play when you're ready to see the correct answer.

Okay, well done if you said that the correct answer was c, Carter prevented SALT II from being ratified in the US Senate in 1979 after the USSR invaded Afghanistan.

Well done if you've got that correct.

We're now ready for the third and final practise task of today's lesson.

I want you to read Andeep's opinion about the end of Detente.

He said, "Detente ended suddenly when the USSR invaded Afghanistan in December, 1979." Do you agree with him? I want you to write one paragraph to explain your point of view.

Pause the video now and press play when you're ready to see a model answer.

Okay, well done for all of your hard work on that final practise task.

You were asked whether or not you agreed with Andeep who had said, "Detente ended suddenly when the USSR invaded Afghanistan in December, 1979." And you were asked to write one paragraph to explain your point of view.

So your answer could include, "I disagree with Andeep that Detente ended suddenly.

Despite the Helsinki Accords, tension had been increasing between the USA and the USSR since 1975.

A major cause of tension was US criticism of Soviet human rights abuses, which increased after Carter became president in 1977.

The relationship between the USA and the USSR also deteriorated because of Soviet support for communist groups in places like Nicaragua and Angola.

As a result, Detente was under serious pressure well before the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan." Well done for all of your hard work on that final task, and well done if you've written a paragraph that looks similar to the one that we've just gone through.

We're at the end of our lesson now, so it's a good opportunity for us to pause and recap our key learning points.

In 1975, the USA and the USSR joined 33 other countries in signing the Helsinki Accords, which were an attempt to reach agreement on borders, international corporation, and human rights.

The Helsinki Accords are sometimes considered to be the high point of Detente.

However, after Helsinki, there was an increase in US-Soviet tensions.

This was partly caused by disagreements over human rights.

By the end of the 1970s, hopes for a sustained improvement in US-Soviet relations had faded.

The USA and USSR signed SALT II to agree further arms limitations, but it was not ratified in the USA after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Before we finish, I just want to say well done for all of your hard work in today's lesson.

It's been a pleasure to teach you.

I hope you've enjoyed the lesson, and I look forward to teaching you again soon.