Bahr sought détente with the Soviet Union through foreign trade and the interweaving of political, economic and cultural ties between East and West Germany. That policy was remarkably successful, although the reunification of Germany did not occur until 1989, fifteen years after the end of Brandt's Chancellorship.
The lesson for future diplomacy, as Stephen Szabo put it was that "dialogue, diplomacy, mutual trust and multilateralism were the best approaches for dealing with seemingly intractable opponents."
The Ostpolitik policy was opposed by the United States, and a particularly influential figure in that opposition and one who remained so until his death in May this year, was Zbigniew Brzezinski, a descendant of minor Polish aristocracy whose lifelong hatred of all things Russian exerted a malign influence on all US Presidents from Carter to Obama.
