SALT I AGREEMENT, 1972 term paper

The breakthrough Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT), signed in 1972 by the United States and the Soviet Union, marked a new chapter in the Cold War and a foreign policy triumph for President Richard Nixon.

Shortly after taking office in 1969, Richard Nixon announced a policy of détente or improving relations with America’s principal Cold War rivals, the People’s Republic of China and the Soviet Union. In February 1972 Nixon went to China, shook the hand of Chairman Mao Zedong, and told Mao that America would welcome China’s help in ending the Vietnam War. Nixon’s trip to China caught everyone by surprise, especially the Soviet Union. In 1969 simmering tensions between China and the Soviet Union had erupted in a series of firefights between Soviet and Chinese troops at the Soviet-Chinese border along the Ussuri River. Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev was very eager to have Nixon visit Moscow and sign a SALT agreement.

Nixon was eager to go to Moscow for three reasons. First, he wanted to take advantage of the Sino-Soviet split and increase American trade with the Soviet Union. Second, he wanted a foreign policy triumph to bolster his position in the forthcoming 1972 presidential elections. Third, a SALT agreement would improve relations with the Soviet Union and afford Nixon an opening to seek Soviet assistance in ending the Vietnam War.

For some time prior to the Moscow meeting, U.S. and Soviet negotiators had been working on an arms limitation agreement. When President Nixon and his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, arrived in Moscow, most of the preliminary negotiations had been concluded. On 22 May 1972, Nixon and Brezhnev signed four very detailed, technical agreements covering a wide range of weapon systems. The agreement limited the Soviet Union to 1,410 land-based offensive missiles and 950 submarine-based missiles. The United States was limited to 1,000 land-based missiles and 710 submarine-based missiles. Both sides also agreed not to deploy a comprehensive antiballistic system, and each party pledged to seek ways to avoid confrontation and advance peaceful coexistence. Although severely criticized for giving away too much in the SALT treaties, Nixon insisted that SALT was a strategic victory for the United States. The United States Senate agreed by approving the SALT treaties by a vote of 88 to 2.
Suggestions for Term Papers
1. How important was the SALT agreement in relaxing tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States in the 1970s? What kind of impact did it have on the Cold War?
2. Compare and contrast Leonid Brezhnev and Richard Nixon as negotiators and statesmen.
3. In his memoirs President Nixon insists that Henry Kissinger played a secondary role in the SALT negotiations. Investigate Kissinger’s role in the SALT negotiations and assess Nixon’s claim.
4. Should the United States have agreed not to deploy a comprehensive antiballistic missile system as part of the SALT agreement? Provide reasons for your position.
5. President Nixon insisted that the SALT agreement would result in better trade relations between the United States and the Soviet Union. Did this turn out to be the case? Explain your reasoning.
6. How important was the SALT agreement in President Nixon’s 1972 presidential campaign?

Research Suggestions

In addition to the boldfaced items, look under the entries for “The Sino-Soviet Split, 1959–1969” (#60), “The 1968 Tet Offensive” (#68), and “The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China, 1966–1976” (#73). Search under Warsaw Pact and NATO.

SUGGESTED SOURCES

Primary Sources

Brezhnev, Leonid. Memoirs. Translated by Penny Dole. Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1982. A thin collection of Brezhnev’s candid views on his role in world affairs.

———. Peace, Détente, Cooperation. New York: Consultants Bureau, 1981. Brezhnev on how SALT could lessen Cold War tensions.

Kissinger, Henry. White House Years. Boston: Little, Brown, 1979. Insightful comments by Nixon’s national security adviser and later secretary of state on the nuts and bolts of SALT negotiations. Nixon, Richard M. RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon. New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1978. A readable and candid account of why President Nixon worked so hard to get a SALT treaty.

Smith, Gerard. Doubletalk: The Untold Story of SALT. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1981. A damning view by the chief American delegate of the duplicity and mischievous quality of Nixon’s SALT diplomacy.

Secondary Sources

Ambrose, Stephen A. Nixon: The Triumph of a Politician, 1962–1972.New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989. Well-researched account that underscores the pragmatic side of Nixon’s SALT diplomacy.

Anderson, Richard. Public Politics in an Authoritarian State: Making Foreign Policy During the Brezhnev Years. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993. A good overview of how Brezhnev approached the SALT talks.

Blum, John Morton. Years of Discord: American Politics and Society, 1961–1974. New York: W. W. Norton, 1991. Especially strong on the domestic considerations of SALT.

Edmonds, Robin. Soviet Foreign Policy: The Brezhnev Years. New York: Oxford University Press, 1983. A useful introduction to Brezhnev’s foreign policy.

Gaddis, John Lewis. Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of Postwar American National Security Policy. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982. Helpful for placing SALT in the context of Cold War security issues.

Hoff-Wilson, Joan. Nixon Reconsidered. New York: Basic Books, 1994. A lucid and authoritative treatment of Nixon’s thinking on SALT.

Lefeber, Walter. The American Age: United States Foreign Policy at Home and Abroad since 1750. New York: W. W. Norton, 1994. A colorfully written diplomatic history complete with political cartoons and an extensive bibliography.

Patterson, James T. Grand Expectations: The United States, 1945–1974.New York : Oxford University Press, 1996. A solid appraisal with an excellent bibliography.