Strategic Arms Limitation Talks The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks ( SALT ) were two rounds of bilateral talks and corresponding international treaties involving the United States and the Soviet Union — the Cold War superpowers — on the issue of armament control . The two rounds of talks and agreements were SALT I and SALT II . Negotiations commenced in Helsinki , Finland , in November 1969 . SALT I led to the Anti - Ballistic Missile Treaty and an interim agreement between the two countries . Although SALT II resulted in an agreement in 1979 , the United States chose not to ratify the treaty in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan , which took place later that year . The United States eventually withdrew from SALT II in 1986 . The treaties led to START ( Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty ) , which consisted of START I ( a 1991 completed agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union ) and START II ( a 1993 agreement between the United States and Russia , which was never ratified ) , both of which proposed specific capacities on each side ' s number of nuclear weapons . A successor to START I , New START , entered proposal and was eventually ratified on February 2011 . SALT I . SALT I is the common name for the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks Agreement , also known as the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty . 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 . The strategic nuclear forces of the Soviet Union and the United States were changing in character in 1968 . The total number of missiles held by the United States had been static since 1967 at 1 , 054 ICBMs and 656 SLBMs but there was an increasing number of missiles with multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle ( MIRV ) warheads being deployed . MIRVs carried multiple nuclear warheads , often with dummies , to confuse ABM systems , making MIRV defense by ABM systems increasingly difficult and expensive . One clause of the treaty required both countries to limit the number of sites protected by an anti - ballistic missile ( ABM ) system to two each . The Soviet Union had deployed such a system around Moscow in 1966 and the United States announced an ABM program to protect twelve ICBM sites in 1967 . A modified two - tier Moscow ABM system is still used . The United States built only one ABM site to protect a Minuteman base in North Dakota where the " Safeguard " Program was deployed . Due to the system ' s expense and limited effectiveness , the Pentagon disbanded " Safeguard " in 1975 . Negotiations lasted from November 17 , 1969 , until May 1972 in a series of meetings beginning in Helsinki , with the US delegation headed by Gerard C . Smith , director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency . Subsequent sessions alternated between Vienna and Helsinki . After a long deadlock , the first results of SALT I came in May 1971 , when an agreement was reached over ABM systems . Further discussion brought the negotiations to an end on May 26 , 1972 , in Moscow when Richard Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev signed both the Anti - Ballistic Missile Treaty and the " Interim Agreement Between The United States of America and The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on Certain Measures With Respect to the Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms " . A number of agreed statements were also made . This helped improve relations between the United States and the USSR . SALT II . SALT II was a series of talks between United States and Soviet negotiators from 1972 to 1979 which sought to curtail the manufacture of strategic nuclear weapon s . It was a continuation of the SALT I talks and was led by representatives from both countries . SALT II was the first nuclear arms treaty which assumed real reductions in strategic forces to 2 , 250 of all categories of delivery vehicles on both sides . SALT II helped the United States to discourage the Soviets from arming their third generation ICBMs of SS - 17 , SS - 19 and SS - 18 types with many more Multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle s ( MIRVs ) . In the late 1970s the USSR ' s missile design bureaus had developed experimental versions of these missiles equipped with anywhere from 10 to 38 warheads each . Additionally , the Soviets secretly agreed to reduce Tu - 22M production to thirty aircraft per year and not to give them an intercontinental range . It was particularly important for the United States to limit Soviet efforts in the Intermediate - Range Nuclear Forces ( INF ) rearmament area . The SALT II Treaty banned new missile programs ( a new missile defined as one with any key parameter 5 % better than in currently deployed missiles ) , so both sides were forced to limit their new strategic missile types development . However , the United States preserved their most essential programs like Trident and cruise missile s , which President Carter wished to use as his main defensive weapon as they were too slow to have first strike capability . In return , the USSR could exclusively retain 308 of its so - called " heavy ICBM " launchers of the SS - 18 type . An agreement to limit strategic launchers was reached in Vienna on June 18 , 1979 , and was signed by Leonid Brezhnev and Jimmy Carter . In response to the refusal of the United States Senate to ratify the treaty , a junior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee , Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware , met with the Soviet Foreign Minister Andrey Gromyko , " educated him about American concerns and interests " and secured several changes that neither the Secretary of State nor Carter could obtain . Six months after the signing , the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan , and in September of the same year , the United States discovered that a Soviet combat brigade was stationed in Cuba . ( Although President Carter claimed this Soviet brigade had only recently been deployed to Cuba , the unit had been stationed on the island since the Cuban missile crisis of 1962 . ) In light of these developments , the treaty was never ratified by the United States Senate . Its terms were , nonetheless , honored by both sides until 1986 when the Reagan Administration withdrew from SALT II after accusing the Soviets of violating the pact . Subsequent discussions took place under the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty ( START ) and the Comprehensive Nuclear - Test - Ban Treaty .