Part of the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History’s Graduate Research Forum

Date: Monday, October 6, 2014
Time: 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Location: LA200, Larkin Building

Title: Envisioning Détente: The Johnson Administration and the October 1964 Khrushchev Ouster

After considerable turbulence, the Cold War reached a period of relative stability in the early 1960s. The ouster of Nikita Khrushchev in October 1964 could have imperiled this inchoate accord between the United States and Soviet Union, but instead represented an acknowledgment in both Washington and Moscow of the importance of maintaining stability and consistency in superpower relations. Making extensive use of US and Soviet primary materials (especially from the Johnson Library), this paper outlines the successes and failures of American analysis during and after the leadership transition. The Johnson administration quickly came to understand that the Kremlin shared its goal of stability, and identified several important themes presaging a period of détente. This paper offers insight into policy making and preferences in the Johnson White House, the evolution of perceptions of the Soviet Union in the West, and the roots of détente.

Presenter: Simon Miles, Ph.D. Candidate, Department of History, University of Texas at Austin

Interested in presenting your work as part of the Graduate Research Forum? Contact susie.colbourn@mail.utoronto.ca for more information.

Photo Credit: LBJ Library photo by Yoichi Okamoto (C5793-23), 25 June 1967.