Strategic Arms Limitation Treaties (SALT)

Two US-Soviet treaties that helped to give a formal shape to detente. SALT I, signed 26 May 1972, regulated the deployment of anti-ballistic missiles and imposed a five-year moratorium on intercontinental ballistic missile construction. SALT II, signed June 1979, was not ratified by the USA because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Further arms-reduction treaties with the US were signed by the Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the 1980s and early 1990s, making significant reductions in the numbers of missiles and nuclear warheads on both sides.