What president hoped to establish a detente between the united states and the soviet union?

President Richard Nixon

Rather than continuing the massive buildup of nuclear arsenals in an arms race, the United States and the Soviet Union began to talk to one another about the strategic reduction of armaments.  The nations' leaders, Leonid Brezhnev and Richard Nixon, met in Moscow in 1972 -- the first visit of a US president to Moscow.  They signed agreements stemming from these Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT), which began a new direction in policy between the two superpowers.