ABSTRACT
The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) in 1969–79 were a familiar feature in the international political landscape and an important element in United States-Union of Soviet Socialist Republics relations. This chapter deals with attitudes of the Soviet military toward SALT, Soviet military objectives in SALT decisionmaking and negotiation, the role of the Soviet military in SALT, the interaction of SALT with the Soviet military posture and military thinking, and some effects of SALT on evolving Soviet political-military relationships over that decade. The first significant effects of SALT on Soviet military programs were felt long before the representatives of the two sides appeared at the green negotiating table. Soviet military participation in the SALT planning and decisionmaking, and in the actual negotiations, has been active and vigorous at all levels. SALT has affected political-military relations in the USSR in a number of ways.
