United States arms control since 1970s to the fall of Soviet Union, was done through strategic Arms Limitation Talks Agreement 1 and 11. These are two times of talks between the United States and the Soviet Union that are the cold war superpower. These negotiations started in Finland in the year 1969. The main aim of strategic Arm Limitation Talk 1 was to abolish ballistic missile (Gaddis, 2005). The first results of SALT 1 were announced in 1971 after the parties reached to an agreement.
In 1972 the concerned parties signed the anti ballistic missile treatment. This as well came with some agreements concerning United States and union of soviet about some measures to minimize offensive arms (Gaddis, 2005). During this period, the relationship the United States and the USSR made a step forward through some agreed statements.
For the United States and USSR to decide on their missiles, it had taken them a lot of time. Great losses had been experienced in both nations through the usage of their chemical weapons.
SALT 1 extended from 1969 to 1972 whereby the discussion between the two parties had the main aim of minimizing their both central and most crucial weapons. Most of the agreements that were signed within this period were successful. They both took a step forward in stopping an upcoming competition in their defensive systems although it was seen as a threat to bring offenses (Ball, 2004).
Strategic Arms Limitation Talk 11 was conducted between 1977 and 1979. This was between Jimmy Carter of United States and Leonid Brezhnev of Soviet Union. The main theme of this meeting was to eradicate the production of strategic nuclear arms. SALT 11 was a continuation of SALT 1 discussions. Most of the pending issues that were from SALT 1 were tabled in SALT 11. Several solutions were concluded during those meetings of SALT 11.
SALT 11 was the initial nuclear arms agreement that fought hard to reduce strategic forces. Through this meeting it was possible for United States to dishearten the Soviet Union from passing on their weapons to their third generation. The SALT 11 agreement eradicated introduction of missile plan. Both parties agreed to minimize their new plans of developing missiles (Ball, 2004).
Jimmy Carter who was the president of United States preserved two programs as his defensive mechanism. USSR also retained one. In the year 1979, a treaty to minimize strategic initiators was made by the two parties.
In the year 1973 the United States and USSR agreed to prevent nuclear war, and they both made some commitments of discussing together any time of nuclear confrontation. Between 1972 and 1979 there was a great change in both United States and Soviet Union as the development of their missile arsenals was going down.
In 1991, the strategic Arms Reduction Treaty was between George Bush of United States and Mikhail of Soviet that caused a great reduction of long-range weapons in both nations (Ball, 2004). This is the year when the fall of Soviet Union happened on a Christmas day when it ended its presence after a 45-year period of conflict with the United States.
During this period, a lot of fear was experienced globally incase of confrontation between United States and Soviet Union. Their status of possessing nuclear weapons placed the whole world in fear. In conclusion, the progress of United States in controlling usage of nuclear weapons has been a long journey full of challenges.
Reference List
Ball, S. J. (2004). The Cold War: An International History. 2nd ed), ISBN 0890968926. Cengage Publisher, Michigan.
Gaddis, J. L. (2005). The Cold War: A New History. (4th ed), ISBN 1594200629. Greenwood Publishing Group, Oxford.