Read the following excerpt.

The text is a passage from the Library of Congress's online history of relations between the United States and the Soviet Union.

"[The] Soviet stance toward the United States became less overtly hostile in the early 1970s. Negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union resulted in summit meetings and the signing of strategic arms limitation agreements. [Soviet Premier] Brezhnev proclaimed in 1973 that peaceful coexistence was the normal … state of relations between [Western] and Communist countries …. In the late 1970s, [internal human rights abuses] and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan led to a renewal of Cold War hostility."

Based on this passage, which statement best describes the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1970s?

A.
It was a period of little contact between the two sides.
B.
It experienced a fragile relaxing of tensions.
C.
It settled into a period of lasting peace.
D.
It relied on third parties to broker compromises to achieve progress.