SALT I

SALT I (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) refers to the first round of bilateral negotiations between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, conducted between November 1969 and May 1972, which produced two instruments signed at Moscow on 26 May 1972 by President Richard Nixon and General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev: the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty and the Interim Agreement on the Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms. The talks emerged from the doctrine of détente and the recognition that both superpowers had reached approximate strategic parity, making the unchecked arms race economically ruinous and strategically destabilising. SALT I was the first agreement to place verifiable numerical ceilings on the central strategic nuclear systems of the two powers, and it rested on the logic of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) — the premise that a credible second-strike capability on both sides deterred a first strike.

The two instruments worked in tandem. The ABM Treaty, of unlimited duration, restricted each side to two ABM deployment sites (reduced to one by the 1974 Protocol) and a limited number of interceptors, deliberately preventing either power from building a national missile defence that might tempt a disarming first strike. The Interim Agreement, a five-year executive accord rather than a treaty, froze the number of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launchers and submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) launchers at existing levels. Crucially, it capped launchers, not warheads, and did not restrict Multiple Independently targetable Re-entry Vehicles (MIRVs), a loophole that allowed both sides to multiply deliverable warheads — a defect SALT II sought to address. Compliance was monitored through "national technical means" (reconnaissance satellites), and the Standing Consultative Commission was established to resolve disputes.

SALT I marked the high point of early Cold War arms control and the institutionalisation of détente, paving the way for the SALT II agreement signed in 1979 by Carter and Brezhnev (never ratified by the US Senate following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan). The ABM Treaty endured until the United States, under President George W. Bush, gave notice of withdrawal in 2001, exiting in June 2002 to pursue missile defence. As of 2026 the strategic arms control architecture has largely unravelled, with the New START treaty (2010) the sole surviving bilateral limitation instrument, suspended by Russia in 2023 and due to expire in February 2026 — making SALT I a benchmark against which the collapse of arms control is measured.

For the examination, SALT I is tested in the World History and International Relations papers, particularly within the Cold War and détente segments of the UPSC General Studies and optional syllabi and in FSOT history sections. The standard question angles are: distinguishing SALT I from SALT II and START; identifying the two component instruments (ABM Treaty plus Interim Agreement) and their signatories and date (Nixon–Brezhnev, 1972); explaining the MAD rationale behind the ABM Treaty; and noting the MIRV loophole as the principal limitation. Candidates should connect SALT I to the broader chronology of détente alongside the 1975 Helsinki Accords and contrast its arms-limitation logic with the arms-reduction (rather than mere limitation) goals of the later START treaties.