'''SALT I''' is the common name for the
Strategic Arms Limitation Talks from 1969–1972 between the
United States and the
Soviet Union, which resulted in a number of accords relating to the
offensive nuclear arsenals of the two nations and a reduction of the
nuclear arms race. It was an important element of
détente.
SALT I treaty is also used as a short-hand for the interim treaty resulting from the talks. SALT I froze the number of strategic ballistic missile launchers at existing levels, and provided for the addition of new SLBM launchers only after the same number of older ICBM and SLBM launchers had been dismantled.
The strategic nuclear forces of the two nations 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. total number of missiles had been static since 1967 at 1,054 ICBMs and 656 SLBMs but there was an increasing number of missiles with 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.
SALT II began in
Vienna in November 1972.
Category:Cold War
Category:Cold War Treaties
de:Strategic Arms Limitation Talks