Salt And Helsinki

Détente: The Easing Of Tensions America, Russia and China

The Cuban Missile Crisis wasn’t all bad…. • Ever since the near flash point of Cuba in 1962, Russian and American leaders realised they HAD to talk to one another, because neither dare risk all out war. • A hotline was installed in the White House and the Russian Kremlin so each leader could contact the other in times of emergency. This was the beginnings of a reduction in tensions.

What is a proxy war? • Instead of fighting each other outright, both sides fought proxy wars, ie they used Third Parties to do their dirty work. • An example would be Vietnam, where Russia and China backed the North and America used the South. The victorious side would show that it proved their IDEAS had prevailed

Why did they do this? • So that they could continue fighting the cold war in the safest way possible. • In the mean time East West relations improved gradually throughout the 1960s and 1970s. • In the Communist World, China and Russia fell out as China came to rival Russia as the world’s great communist power. This gave the Americans a great opportunity.

The slowing down of the arms race. • SALT 1: The Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty. • Negotiations started in Helsinki, Finland, in 1969 and focused on limiting the two countries' stocks of nuclear weapons. • SALT I froze the number of strategic ballistic missile launchers at existing levels, and provided for the addition of new submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) launchers only after the same number of older intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and SLBM launchers had been dismantled.

More SALT • By 1968 the nuclear arsenals of both countries were massive and growing ever more sophisticated with the invention of the MIRV. • multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV) warheads being deployed. MIRV's carried multiple nuclear warheads, often with dummies, to confuse anti missile systems, making MIRV defence by anti missile systems increasingly difficult and expensive. • Both sides were becoming more aware that they wre in a very expensive checkmate. • Negotiations lasted from November 17, 1969 until May 1972

SALT II • SALT II happened nearly a decade alter between 1977-79 between Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev. • This treaty limited the total number of missiles to 2250 on each side. • Russia was encouraged not to add more MIRVs to her missiles. • Designing and building new missiles was also banned.

The Test Ban Treaty • The Test Ban Treaty • Signed just after the Missile Crisis, in 1963, the treaty banned Nuclear Weapon Tests In The Atmosphere, In Outer Space And Under Water. • It was developed both to slow the arms race (nuclear testing was, back then, necessary for continued nuclear weapon advancements), and to stop the excessive release of nuclear fallout into the planet's atmosphere. • As weapons became thousands of times more powerful, it was agreed by both sides they were too radioactive to continue testing in the air and sea.

The Comprehensive Test Ban • The Comprehensive Test Ban • A major step towards non-proliferation of nuclear weapons came with the signing of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1968. • Under the NPT, non-nuclear weapon states were prohibited from, inter alia, possessing, manufacturing or acquiring nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices. • All signatories, including nuclear weapon states, were committed to the goal of total nuclear disarmament.

The lost decade • The Influence of Reagan • Very little progress was made during the 1980s towards a comprehensive treaty banning all testing. • This was in no small part due to the very provocative and aggressive stance taken by US President Ronald Reagan, who described the USSR as ‘The Evil Empire’. • The issue was brought before the UN in 1993. • On 10 September 1996, the Comprehensive Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) was adopted by a large majority, exceeding two-thirds of the General Assembly's Membership.