Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT), a series of meetings between the Soviet Union and the United States, took place between 1969 and 1979. The two nations met in an attempt to limit the production and distribution of nuclear weapons. United States President Lyndon B. Johnson proposed the talks in January 1967 to try to end the costly U.S.-Soviet arms race. At that time, the Soviets were trying to overtake the United States in the production of offensive intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM’s) and submarine-launched missiles. Later, the Soviets began building an antiballistic missile (ABM) system to defend Moscow.
The first round of SALT meetings lasted from 1969 to 1972. The meetings took place in Helsinki, Finland; Vienna, Austria; and Geneva, Switzerland. A second round, held in Geneva, lasted from 1973 to 1979.
The first round of meetings led to two major U.S.-Soviet agreements signed in 1972. The two agreements together became known as SALT I. One agreement was a treaty limiting each country’s defensive missile system to two ABM sites with no more than 100 missiles at each site. The treaty was later changed to allow each nation only one site. The other SALT I pact limited distribution of certain offensive nuclear weapons for five years. Both agreements went into effect in 1972.
In 1979, another round of SALT talks led to the signing of a U.S.-Soviet treaty limiting long-range bombers and missiles. But the pact, known as SALT II, did not officially take effect because the U.S. Senate never ratified it. The Senate stopped considering the treaty in 1980, partly to protest a Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. But limits under SALT II were observed until 1986.
In 1991, the Soviet Union was dissolved, and most of the former Soviet republics formed a loose confederation of independent states. Key members agreed to abide by the ABM Treaty of SALT I.
In 2002, however, the United States withdrew from the ABM Treaty. United States President George W. Bush claimed that the development of an extensive missile defense system was central to the security of the United States.
See also Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, United States ; Cold War ; Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs .
