rejected the plan, arguing that the United Nations was dominated by the United States and western Europe The Soviet Union became a nuclear power in 1949 and by the mid-1950s had proposed a gradual reduction in conventional military forces, to be followed by an eventual destruction of nuclear stockpiles In 1959 Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev, in a speech to the General Assembly of the United Nations, called for total nuclear disarmament within four years The United States refused to accept these recommendations without on-site inspections to verify disarmament agreements The Soviet Union refused to allow nuclear inspectors on its territory, and there would little progress on the issue of disarmament between the two powers in the 1950s After the United States and the Soviets came to the brink of war in the Cuban missile crisis, the focus of the two superpowers moved away from nuclear disarmament toward preventing the testing, deployment, and proliferation of these weapons In August 1963 the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain—which had become a nuclear power in 1952—signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty, which banned nuclear tests in the atmosphere, outer space, and underwater In July 1968 the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Under the terms of the treaty the nuclear powers pledged never to furnish nuclear weapons or nuclear technology to nonnuclear powers The treaty also created a international inspection team under the United Nations International Atomic Energy Administration to verify compliance with the terms of the treaty After his election in 1968, President Richard Nixon sought an easing of diplomatic tensions with the Soviet Union, a process known as détente The Soviet Union also was looking to ease tensions with the West Both sides came to the conclusion that the cold war was costing too much and sought to achieve their foreign policy goals through negotiations and peaceful coexistence rather than confrontation In January 1969 the Soviet Union proposed negotiations for the limitation of nuclear delivery vehicles and defensive systems President Nixon endorsed the talks, and in so doing altered U.S policy away from nuclear superiority This change in policy was the result of the Soviet arms buildup in the 1960s, which had led to strategic parity between the two superpowers salt i Negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union, known as the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT I), began in November 1969 These talks culmi- disarmament, nuclear 121 nated in the signing of the SALT I Treaty in May 1972 This treaty placed limits on specific nuclear weapons The SALT I Treaty was to be valid for five years, and the two sides began negotiations for a new agreement to take effect after the expiration of this treaty The two sides agreed on a ceiling of 2,400 total delivery vehicles, with each side equipping no more than 1,320 missiles with multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs) After 1974 talks slowed because of disagreements over which types of weapons should count under the 2,400 ceiling The two sides failed to come to an agreement From 1977 to 1979 the United States and the Soviets began new negotiations, known as the SALT II talks These talks culminated in the SALT II Treaty signed by President Jimmy Carter and Soviet president Leonid Brezhnev on June 22, 1979 This treaty implemented the principle of equal aggregate limits, placing numerical limits on each side’s nuclear arsenal The treaty allowed 2,400 total strategic vehicles (reduced to 2,250 in 1981) and limited MIRV ballistic and MIRV intercontinental ballistic missiles With the principle of equal aggregate limits in place, both superpowers sought to end unrestricted competition for strategic superiority The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, and U.S domestic political opposition, influenced the U.S Senate to refuse to ratify the treaty Despite this fact, both sides agreed to adhere to the terms of the treaty as long as the other complied as well By 1986, however, both sides were producing weapons programs that led the other to charge it with rejecting the provisions of the treaty Strategic Arms Reduction Talks Treaty In 1981 President Ronald Reagan focused on alleged Soviet military superiority and began the largest peacetime buildup in U.S history Despite this arms buildup, Reagan agreed to abide by the limits in the SALT II Treaty In 1982 Reagan called for the resumption of strategic arms reduction talks, later termed START Shortly after Mikhail Gorbachev became Soviet general secretary in March 1985, he announced a postponement of the planned deployment of intermediate-range missiles in Europe until November and expressed a willingness to reenter talks with the United States By July he suspended all Soviet nuclear tests In November Gorbachev and Reagan met at the Geneva Summit, breaking the period of deteriorating relations since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 The leaders also announced the beginning of new talks