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:
“Very few of our race can be said to be yet finished men. We still carry sticking to us some remains of the preceding inferior quadruped organization. We call these millions men; but they are not yet men. Half-engaged in the soil, pawing to get free, man needs all the music that can be brought to disengage him.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Man is a stream whose source is hidden. Our being is descending into us from we know not whence. The most exact calculator has no prescience that somewhat incalculable may not balk the very next moment. I am constrained every moment to acknowledge a higher origin for events than the will I call mine.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)