Preceding Events
The détente between the United States and the Soviet Union culminated in the signing of the SALT I (1972) and SALT II (1979) agreements which mostly reduced nuclear capacities, supposedly to prevent an ongoing arms race in this area.
The SALT agreements were not intended to be considered a form of mutual arms control, but merely referred to strategic carrier systems and their warheads, which did not include any tactical nuclear weapons, e.g. nuclear bombs delivered by bombers or midrange missiles (MRBMs & IRBMs). This was a loophole in the SALT agreements which existed because midrange missiles were only in use until the intercontinental-ballistic missile was perfected. This loophole was exploited by the Soviet Union to develop and deploy a new modern midrange missile equipped with multiple nuclear warheads, the SS-20.
Read more about this topic: NATO Double-Track Decision
Famous quotes containing the words preceding and/or events:
“The world is never the same as it was.... And that’s as it should be. Every generation has the obligation to make the preceding generation irrelevant. It happens in little ways: no longer knowing the names of bands or even recognizing their sounds of music; no longer implicitly understanding life’s rules: wearing plaid Bermuda shorts to the grocery and not giving it another thought.”
—Jim Shahin (20th century)
“I have no time to read newspapers. If you chance to live and move and have your being in that thin stratum in which the events which make the news transpire—thinner than the paper on which it is printed—then these things will fill the world for you; but if you soar above or dive below that plane, you cannot remember nor be reminded of them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)