Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT), negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union to limit the manufacture of strategic missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons. The first agreements, known as SALT I and SALT II, were signed in 1972 and 1979 by the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and aimed to limit the arms race of strategic (long-range or intercontinental) nuclear-armed ballistic missiles. For the first time proposed by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967, strategic arms limitation talks were agreed by the two superpowers in the summer of 1968, and in November 1969 comprehensive negotiations began. The SALT-1 agreement was to last five years, which is why salt-2 talks began in November 1972. However, a broad coalition of republicans and conservative Democrats has become increasingly skeptical of the Soviet Union`s crackdown on internal differences, its increasingly interventionist foreign policy and the treaty review process. On December 17, 1979, 19 Carter Senators wrote that “the ratification of a SALT II treaty will not reverse the development of the military balance that is detrimental to the United States.” On December 25, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan, and on January 3, 1980, Carter asked the Senate not to consider SALT II for its advice and approval, and it was never ratified. Washington and Moscow then pledged to abide by the terms of the agreement, although it did not enter into force. Carter`s successor, Ronald Reagan, a vocal critic of SALT II during the 1980 presidential campaign, agreed to respect SALT II until it expired on December 31, 1985, while he followed the Strategic Arms Treaty (START) and argued that research conducted under the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) maintained the 1972 ABM Treaty. As its title states, “the interim agreement between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on certain measures to limit offensive weapons” was limited in duration and scope. It is expected to remain in effect for five years.
(See previous section of LA SALT.) The two countries pledged to continue negotiations for a broader agreement as soon as possible, and the provisions of the 1972 agreement should not undermine the scope and terms of a new agreement. The most important element of the summit was the salt agreements. Discussions on SALT have been going on for about two and a half years, but with little progress. However, during the meeting between Nixon and Brezhnev in May 1972, a monumental breakthrough was made. The SALT de accords signed on 27 May dealt with two important issues. First, they limited the number of anti-ballistic missile (ABM) sites to two. (ABMs were missiles designed to destroy arriving missiles.) Second, the number of intercontinental missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles has been frozen at current levels. However, the agreements have done nothing on several independent return missiles (individual missiles with several nuclear warheads) or on the development of new weapons. Yet most Americans and Soviets hailed the salts agreements as huge achievements. The two agreements differ in duration and inclusion. The ABM Treaty “is indefinite,” but each party has the right to resign within six months if it decides that its ultimate interests are compromised by “exceptional events related to the purpose of this treaty.” The interim agreement spanned a five-year period and covered only some important aspects of strategic weapons. The agreements are linked not only in their strategic implications, but also in their relations with future negotiations on the restrictions of strategic offensive weapons.