Cold War Arms Reduction

1. Cold War Arms Reduction

2. Deterrence • First strike capability • being able to destroy every weapon your enemy has • impossible because weapons are too numerous and too well-hidden • Second strike capability • ability to successfully attack enemy after you have been attacked • Both capabilities lead to mutual assured destruction (MAD) • both superpowers knew this: they could not survive a war against each other • as a result they had peace (although a tense one)

3. Detente • SALT I (1972) • Strategic Arms Limitations Talks agreement, five year life span • agreed to by Brezhnev and Nixon • limited ICBMs • American overall nuclear superiority maintained due to weapons not covered in this agreement e.g. long-range bombers

4. Detente • Helsinki Accords (1975) • agreed to by Brezhnev and Ford plus 33 other nations • resolved long-term issues in Europe left over from Potsdam Conference (1945) • Accord had three parts:

5. Helsinki: 1. Questions Relating to Security in Europe • Frontiers of Soviet Union and allies to be inviolable, alterations could only be made according to international law, by peaceful means and by agreement • 21 day notice required for military manoeuvres involving more than 25,000 soldiers within 250 kilometres of national borders and exchange of observers

6. Helsinki Accords (cont’d) 2. Cooperation in the Fields of Economics, of Science and Technology, and of the Environment 3. Cooperation in Humanitarian and Other Fields • signatories bound to respect human rights • aimed to facilitate freer movement of peoples, freedom of choice in private and professional associations

7. SALT II (1979) • agreed to by Brezhnev and Carter • placed limits on the number of weapons each side could actually build • never ratified by US Senate due to protest over USSR invasion of Afghanistan • despite this, new limits agreed to were observed by the US and USSR until 1985

8. INF Treaty (1987)Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty agreed to by Gorbachev and Reagan bans all Soviet and American ballistic missiles and American missiles with a range of 500 - 550 km 1,600 Soviet and 400 American missiles to be destroyed provides for destruction of all such existing weapons cuts arsenals by 4% significant because instead of just placing ceilings on production (like SALT I and SALT II), this treaty calls for actual destruction of weapons (first ever such superpower treaty)

9. START I (1990) • Strategic Arms Reduction Talks • begun in 1982, concluded by Gorbachev and Bush • long-range nuclear arsenals to be cut by 30 to 35% • 50% of warheads carried by land- and submarine-launched ballistic missiles to be cut • each side limited to 880 sea-launched cruise missiles (SLCM) • air-launched cruise missiles (ALCMs) limited to range of 600 km • 1,600 strategic missiles and bombers each • 6,000 nuclear warheads each

10. START II (1993) • US (Bush) and Russia (Yeltsin) • Reduce warheads and bombers to 4,250 each by 2004 and to 3,000 to 3,500 each by 2007 • ban land-based missiles (deadliest multiple nuclear warhead missiles) e.g. American MX and Russian SS-18 • land-based ICBMs with multiple warheads eliminated • each side may restructure ICBM sites to house single-warhead missiles

11. 1995 renewal on Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) • treaty now permanent, signed by 178 states • only five states allowed to have nuclear weapons: USA, Russia, China, France and Britain • nuclear-weapons states will not help others obtain nuclear weapons • non-nuclear states will not try to buy nuclear weapons • non-weapon states will accept inspection by the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) • Israel, India and Pakistan refuse to sign NPT, likely already have nuclear weapons

12. The World’s Nuclear Arsenal • http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/world/03/nuclear_powers/html/default.stm