Strategic Arms Limitation Talks
Preliminary discussions to limit the long-range missiles and bombers of the two superpowers began in 1967. They were broken off by the Americans as a result of the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968, resumed in November 1969 under the name of Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) and concluded in May 1972. The treaty froze the numbers of strategic ‘launchers’ (missiles or bombers) for five years but permitted modernization and increases in the number of warheads which the launchers could carry. A second agreement, normally considered under the heading of SALT, prohibited permanent deployment of more than very limited defensive systems against offensive missiles. In 1979 a second SALT treaty was concluded which provided for very small reductions in the numbers of Soviet launchers and permitted considerable increases in the numbers of warheads deployed. Following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979 the Americans abandoned the ratification process and the treaty lapsed, though in practice both sides kept roughly within its very comfortable limits until the conclusion of the next round of strategic arms negotiations known as START.
— Peter Byrd
