Upon the death of Stalin in 1953, Khrushchev emerged as the Soviet Union's new political giant. The dilemma that he faced was to either continue preparing for US aggression as his predecessor Stalin did, or to make amends with the West to concentrate on the rebuilding of the USSR's war-torn economy, industries and cities. Khrushchev showed that he intended to appear to have chosen the latter through his domestic (including East European countries) destalinisation and liberalization, …showed first 75 words of 1172 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1172 total…building up of the Soviet Union after its war torn state not even two decades ago meant that there had to be more political freedom; Stalin had to be criticized for Khrushchev to remain in power. The building of the USSR meant that they had to acquire more arms, more land, more allies, more space, and more say in international relations. This is both the détente occurred and why it ended at 1960.