How far did 'peaceful coexistence' ease Cold War tensions between 1953-1961?

During the years 1953-1961, there are certainly factors which would suggest an easing of tensions between the USA and USSR. One such was the signing of the Korean Armistice in 1953, which ended direct conflict between the countries, thereby reducing hostility as neither was directly threatening the other. Further factors were the East German Revolt, Hungarian Uprising and Polish Crisis, which served to ease tensions as during these crises the USA respected the Soviet sphere of influence. As such, these events epitomised the term 'peaceful coexistence', for although provided the opportunity, the USA did not use the situation to induce a roll back of communism, which could have been done through providing economic and military support to the rebels. However, in both situations, an easing of tensions was not the primary motivation or actively sought for, and arrives as a by-result of either domestic pressure in the case of the Korean War, or practical reasons in regard to the East European uprisings.

However, there are also several factors which would have served to have increased or at least maintained tensions between the countries in the period under address. For example, the USA did not maintain the Geneva Agreements, deliberately defying these in order to ensure that Indo-China remained split. The USA prevented elections from occuring, provided military support and created the SEATO alliance, which thereby made Indo-China an area of Cold War conflict. Furthermore, the threat of use of nuclear weapons was used twice by the Soviets, during the Suez Crisis in 1956 and the Berlin Crisis (1958-61). The need to use this threat would suggest that tension between the superpowers remained prevalent, whilst also further increasing this tension as they held increased fear and scepticsm of the other. This was supported by the escalation of the nuclear arms race in the 1950's, which escalated to such an extent that the war held serious potential to lead to Mutually Assured Destruction in the 1960's.