Linkage was a
policy pursued by the United States of America, championed by
Richard Nixon and
Henry Kissinger, during the 1970s period of
Cold War Détente which aimed to persuade the
Soviet Union and
Communist China to co-operate in restraining
revolutions in the
Third World in return for concessions in
nuclear and
economic fields. However, despite this lack of Soviet intervention, a large number of revolutions still occurred in these third world countries, thereby undermining this policy. The premise behind linkage, as a policy, was to connect political and military issues, thereby establishing a relationship making progress in area "A" dependent on progress in area "B."