Visual guide: SALT I and the ABM Treaty. Congressional Research Service (CRS), Library of Congress and the linked official records supply the evidence below. This diagram is not a photograph, chronology of legal effect or measure of success.
Context & scope
The agreements fall within Nixon’s presidency in 1972; the CRS passage establishes the U.S.–Soviet actions and dates, not exclusive personal presidential causation. The 1977 continuation and 2002 withdrawal belong to later administrations. Historical negotiated limits; the Interim Agreement’s initial term was five years, and the ABM Treaty later ended for the United States. SALT II is a separate 1979 agreement and must not be treated as ratified here.
Goal
Place negotiated limits on U.S. and Soviet strategic offensive launchers and anti-ballistic-missile defenses.
The Interim Agreement imposed a freeze on ICBM and SLBM launchers. The ABM Treaty restricted missile-defense sites and systems. In 1977 both countries agreed to continue observing the interim limits while completing SALT II. These were limits on specified systems; this source does not demonstrate a reduction in total nuclear warheads.
Unequal launcher ceilings prompted congressional objections and a requirement for equal limits in future agreements. The ABM Treaty restricted territorial missile defense, and U.S. withdrawal from that treaty took effect June 13, 2002.
Congressional Research Service (CRS), Library of Congress
Source date
2020-03-26
Document type
official government retrospective research
Reading location
The Early Years: SALT I and SALT II, printed p.5 ; Interim Agreement on Offensive Arms, printed p.5 ; Interim Agreement on Offensive Arms, printed p.6 ; The ABM Treaty, printed p.7 ; Ballistic Missile Defenses and the ABM Treaty, printed p.15 ; The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, printed pp.7–8
