SALT II compliance dispute
SALT II 준수 논쟁
The SALT II compliance dispute was a Cold War controversy over whether the Soviet Union had violated the 1979 agreement and the two sides' commitments to observe it. The U.S. administration identified issues including telemetry encryption and ICBM modernization as violations, while political and expert disagreement persisted over their legal character, interpretation of provisions, and standards for verification and counting.
In depth
The treaty was not ratified by the U.S. Senate, but both sides stated that they would generally observe its numerical limits into the mid-1980s. The controversy therefore concerned not only alleged breaches of a treaty in force, but also the meaning of political commitments to an unratified agreement and how intelligence and verification evidence should be assessed. U.S. reports argued that repeated Soviet violations undermined confidence in arms control, while critics disputed the classification of some cases and the application of the standards. The dispute shows how compliance judgments, extending beyond technical counting and legal interpretation, shaped bilateral relations and the conditions of subsequent arms-control negotiations.
Sources
- Wikipedia (EN) SALT II's 1979 agreement, non-ratification, and continued observance after signing
- reaganlibrary.gov Reagan administration's documented allegations of Soviet noncompliance and its claim that compliance was essential to arms control
- presidency.ucsb.edu contemporaneous U.S. government findings on alleged SALT II violations, including telemetry encryption and ICBM modernization