Pivot to Russia
We basically kept our distance from the Soviet Union throughout the Cold War era from the 1950s up to its disintegration in 1991, as we focused on our “special relations” with the United States. From 1991 to 2016, we maintained nominal diplomatic and economic ties with Russia but, on the whole, we still cold-shouldered the Russians, fixated as we were with keeping our friendship with the Americans and their allies in Western Europe.