Missile Defence and Arms Control Diplomacy, 1968–72

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the Soviet internal debates and policy decisions which took place while the SALT (Strategic Arms Limitation Talks) I and ABM treaties were being negotiated. The first attempt at strategic arms limitation talks between the superpowers was abandoned after Warsaw Pact troops crushed the Prague Spring reforms in August 1968. The Czech experience of economic reform set a dangerous precedent in the view of the Brezhnev Politburo and contributed significantly to the leadership’s preference for trade over domestic reform to shore up the already-ailing Soviet economy. In agreeing to the strict limitations on ballistic missile defences set out in the ABM Treaty the Soviet leaders were acting in response to a variety of political, economic and technological pressures. The Nixon administration made it clear that progress on trade would be linked to progress on arms control, and ABM was the single issue which most concerned the Americans during the course of the SALT I negotiations. Brezhnev and his colleagues in the Politburo hoped that an arms control agreement would impose restrictions on the US weapons development programme which would make the arms race both more predictable and less costly for Moscow.