Strategic Arms Limitation Talks

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(Redirected from SALT I)

The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks refers to two rounds of bilateral talks and corresponding international treaties between the Soviet Union and United States, the Cold War superpowers, on the issue of armament control. There were two rounds of talks and agreements: SALT I and SALT II.

1 SALT I
2 SALT II
3 Larger historical context
4 Trivia
5 See also
6 External links

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SALT I

SALT I is the common name for the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks Agreement. SALT I froze the number of strategic ballistic missile launchers at existing levels, and provided for the addition of new submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) launchers only after the same number of older intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and SLBM launchers had been dismantled.

The strategic nuclear forces of the Soviet Union and the United States were changing in character in the late 1960s. The Soviet program was for the continued deployment of heavy land-based missiles and new ballistic missile submarines; the Soviet Union had been deploying around 200 more missiles every year since 1968. The U.S.'s total number of missiles had been static since 1967 at 1054 ICBMs and 656 SLBMs but there was an increasing number of missiles with multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV) warheads being deployed. Both nations were developing anti-ballistic missile (ABM) systems, the Soviet Union deploying such a system around Moscow in 1966 and the United States announcing an ABM program to protect twelve ICBM sites in 1967.

Negotiations lasted from November 1969 until May 1972 in a series of meetings beginning in Helsinki on November 17, 1969. Further sessions alternated between Vienna and Helsinki. After a long deadlock, the first results of SALT I came in May 1971, when agreement was reached over ABM systems. Further discussion brought the negotiations to an end on May 26, 1972 in Moscow when Richard Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and the Interim Agreement Between The United States of America and The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on Certain Measures With Respect to the Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms. A number of agreed statements were also made.

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SALT II

Image:Carter Brezhnev sign SALT II.jpg SALT II was a second round of talks from 1972 to 1979 between the U.S. and Soviet Union, which sought to curtail the manufacture of strategic nuclear weapons. It was a continuation of progress made during the SALT I talks.

An agreement to limit strategic launchers was reached in Vienna on June 18, 1979, and was signed by Leonid Brezhnev and President Jimmy Carter. Six months after the signing, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, and as such the treaty was never ratified by the United States Senate. Its terms were nonetheless honored by both sides.

Subsequent discussions took place under Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.

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Larger historical context

The nuclear arms race was an outgrowth of the Cold War and was expensive for both sides, both in money and by diverting resources from other, more useful weapons. Producing more and more weapons and delivery systems had reached a point of diminishing returns by the early 1970s. Additional arms were of decreasing usefulness given that each side could quite assuredly cripple the economy, infrastructure, populace (etc.) of the other side even if only a small fraction of the weapons launched managed to strike their intended targets.

There was starting to be a further cost that probably had not been factored in during earlier eras - maintenance. Each missile, warhead, silo, launcher, ship, and other system had to be maintained with spare parts, expertise, and consequently, money.

The combination of these factors meant that the military and political leadership on both sides had an incentive to reduce their arsenals. Factoring in the industrial complex, if the talks led to allowances for fewer but more advanced systems, this would allow for further expenditures and thus keep the military-industrial complex happy.

Massive amounts of mistrust on both sides contributed to difficulties with the treaty process, however. The U.S. Senate never passed the treaty due to arguments about the terms of the treaty not being enforceable due to cheating by the other side and the U.S. government's ability to detect if cheating was occurring. The process of ratification lost momentum after time and was never picked up.

Further talks were picked up by President Ronald Reagan and Premier of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev in the mid-1980s.

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Trivia

When President Carter signed the SALT II treaty in June 1979, he gave Brezhnev a kiss on the cheek. In 1980, Republicans used photographs of the signing ceremony with the message to voters "You too can kiss off Jimmy Carter."

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