Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT)
- Talks began in 1969, between US and USSR
- By 1972 the first SALT treaty (SALT I) agreed that both countries would limit their number of ICBMs
- SALT II, 1979, intended to accomplish nuclear parity
- SALT II got interrupted by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
- 1980 Ronald Reagan became President and ended détente
Summary
SALT I, the first series of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, extended from November 1969 to May 1972. During that period the United States and the Soviet Union negotiated the first agreements to place limits and restraints on some of their central and most important armaments. In a Treaty on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems, they moved to end an emerging competition in defensive systems that threatened to spur offensive competition to still greater heights. In an Interim Agreement on Certain Measures With Respect to the Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms, the two nations took the first steps to check the rivalry in their most powerful land- and submarine-based offensive nuclear weapons.