The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT)

SALT I - 1972
SALT II - 1979

Part of the Cold War was the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union. Of special concern were strategic, or long-distance, missiles that were built to carry nuclear weapons.

SALT I and II were initiated to limit the production of these missiles.

In 1972, SALT I was signed in Moscow by Richard M. Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev.
 

President Richard Nixon and General Secretary of the
Soviet Communist Party Leonid Brezhnev sign the Strategic
Arms Limitation agreement at the Kremlin in May 1972.
AP/Wide World
 

In 1979, SALT II was signed in Vienna by Jimmy Carter and Leonid Brezhnev.

But things went wrong. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1980 and diplomatic relations became a bit frosty. However, negotiations resumed in 1982 under the name Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START.)