SALT, START = SMART?
Discuss the SALT 1 treaty. How did it differ from the START treaty and why?
By 1969 the Soviet Union had achieved nuclear parity with the United States and therefore were ready to start arms limitation talks. Before this point any limitation on the new creation of nuclear weapons would only have held the Soviet Union back from catching up to the United States. The late 60s also marked the beginning of a period of détente or the lessening of tensions between the US and USSR. Increasingly positive bilateral relations between the two powers led to concrete reasons for both sides to want to begin strategic arms limitation talks.
The first reason that the powers were open to this was that it was simply incredibly expensive to continue the arms race that had existed since the end of World War 2. In many ways Salt was exercise in trust between the two nations, neither side really agreed to anything substantial and neither side had to get rid of any weapons that they already had. However, both the US and USSR were scrutinizing the other side to see if they would follow through with their small promises before more substantial agreements could be reached. For these reasons, a crucial part of the negotiations was the agreement that talks would continue even after SALT 1 negotiations concluded.
Two main treaties came out of SALT 1, the interim agreement as well as the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty. These treaties stipulated the max number of ICBMs, Nuclear Submarines, and Bombers each side was allowed to have. The Soviets were allowed to have significantly more ICBMs and Nuclear Submarines than the Americans because of the number of bombers that the west had. The two sides figured that it would be too difficult to verify the exact number of bombers that the other side would have and so they agreed to let the US make and own as many Bombers as they wanted, while the Soviets who had a very small bomber fleet would continue to own next to no bombers. There were no attempts during these negotiations to limit the size of any of the nuclear weapons or where either side could base them.
The Treaty also did not consider the development of multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRV’s). These new weapons allowed for multiple nuclear warheads to be housed inside an ICBM so that when it approaches a target it can split apart into multiple nuclear weapons hitting multiple targets, dramatically increasing the number of nuclear weapons that could be deployed with the same number of delivery vehicles. This was an advantage to the Soviets who had in general built larger missiles that could house more warheads than the Americans. It’s important to note that while the Soviets may have had significantly more nuclear warheads in the years following this treaty, the Americans still had sufficient weapons to launch a retaliatory nuclear strike in case of attack.
The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) was unique from SALT 1 because for the first time in history the US and USSR agreed to actually reduce the number of nuclear weapons in their stockpiles. Every agreement before this had simply been about not creating any more weapons of mass destruction rather than actually dismantling any of them. Another difference between the SALT and START treaties was that the Soviet Union was at a very different place at the start of the 90’s than they were 20 years earlier. The USSR had tried to keep up with Reagans military spending in the 80’s under Brezhnev and had spent themselves broke. This military spending had launched a new nuclear arms race leading to the creation of the greatest number of nuclear weapons in history, around 10,000 on each side. Such a large portion of the Soviet GDP was going to the military that they were having serious problems in all other parts of their economy. Gorbachev, who, based on my analysis of his actions, honestly cared about the wellbeing of the soviet people agreed to destroy an enormous amount of his weapons in order to bring down his military costs and try to repair the soviet economy. Glasnost and Perestroika had opened the country to new ideas and new economic markets in an attempt to improve the material quality of life for the soviet people, but access to all this new information and opportunity only further pushed the soviet population to cry for change. Discontent, and a desire to move away from communism was becoming more common within the USSR. The Soviet Union fell shortly after the signing of this treaty.
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