Were the SALT treaties effective in reducing the number of nuclear weapons?

The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) were two treaties that had the shared goal of ending the arms race between the U.S. and Soviet Union. Due to a number of factors, the treaties did not succeed in reducing the number of nuclear weapons possessed by either country.

The first SALT talks began in 1967 under the administrations of President Johnson in the United States and Premier Kosygin in the Soviet Union. The idea for talks was born out of U.S. intelligence reports that suggested the Soviet Union was building an Anti-Ballistic Missile system to shoot down incoming American nuclear missiles. Johnson, believing that the system would bring the U.S. and Soviet Union closer to war, met Kosygin in 1967 to propose that both sides limit the construction of new nuclear weapons.

After over two years of negotiations, the U.S. and Soviet Union ratified SALT I in 1972. This represented the first time that both sides of the Cold War had come to an agreement concerning nuclear weapons. Though a powerful and important achievement, the treaty did not reduce nuclear stockpiles, but limited the construction of new Anti-Ballistic Missile systems.

Throughout the 1970s, the U.S. and Soviet Union continued negotiations in the hopes of ratifying SALT II. The goal of SALT II was to reduce nuclear stockpiles and the number of nuclear missiles deployed by both countries. Though it seemed that both sides had reached an agreement in 1974, neither country could agree upon the exact number of warheads to destroy. This roadblock, along with issues concerning nuclear armed bombers and multiple re-entry warheads, caused a five-year delay in negotiations.

In 1979, the U.S. and Soviet Union finalized the SALT II treaty. It seemed as if the two countries would finally reduce their nuclear stockpiles. President Jimmy Carter signed the treaty that year, but due to opposition in the Senate, the treaty was never ratified. Carter pulled his support for the treaty after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979. The policies of disarmament that SALT II represented were subsequently cast aside during the presidency of Ronald Reagan.