ABSTRACT
The subject of this chapter is strategic arms limitation talks (SALT), what has happened, what the situation is now and what the likely future is of the SALT negotiations in the very narrow sense of the negotiations per se. Although there was a lot of enthusiasm at first when the SALT treaty was announced, it did not come as a surprise. There had been a great deal of commitment on the part of both governments for years before this to the fact that there would be an agreement. In short, one of the most significant accomplishments of having a treaty is that failure would have been disastrous for arms control for many years. Another significant implication of the ABM Treaty is that some of the military arguments for continued nuclear testing have disappeared. The strongest argument for continued nuclear testing has been that one have to measure the effects of weapons in case they have to penetrate an ABM.
