Small steps towards new frontiers? Ideas, concepts and the emergence of a détente strategy in the thinking of Willy Brandt and John F. Kennedy

Author: Hofmann, Arne

Source: Historical Research, Volume 79, Number 205, August 2006 , pp. 429-449(21)

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Abstract:

Willy Brandt was deeply impressed by John F. Kennedy and his administration and often cited him as an important influence. This article focuses on Brandt's and Kennedy's thinking about détente in the early nineteen-sixties. An examination of the similarities in their policies of engagement, of the disparities in their attitudes towards the status quo and of the resulting differences in their policies towards the German question shows how Brandt anticipated much of Kennedy's general détente thinking, while Kennedy in turn anticipated much of Brandt's later Ostpolitik.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2281.2006.00376.x

Affiliations: 1: Queen Mary, University of London

Publication date: 2006-08-01