ABSTRACT
Reykjavik breached the logic and language of nuclear confrontation between the Soviet Union and United States. After Reagan proposed "total elimination of all offensive ballistic missiles" in ten years, and Gorbachev counterproposed that all US and Soviet "strategic offensive arms" be "totally eliminated" in ten years, the two tumbled toward the view that all nuclear weapons be abandoned. At the end of the 10-year period, with all offensive ballistic missiles eliminated, either side would be free to deploy defenses. "The USSR and the United States would undertake for a period of 10 years not to take advantage of the right of withdrawing from the anti-ballistic missile treaty treaty and during this period to adhere strictly to all its provisions. The revised US proposal seemed to say that "research, development and testing" are permitted by the treaty. Certainly the parties could develop and test the anti-missile systems they intended to use in the two permitted deployment areas.
