The threshold of the danger of a nuclear war was reduced when the Soviet Union and the United States agreed to eliminate existing intermediate-range nuclear missiles deployed in Europe.
Decades of suspicion, misunderstanding, and confrontation during the Cold War years after 1945 greatly reduced the opportunity for the United States and the Soviet Union to find common ground and achieve breakthroughs in the complicated realm of nuclear arms control. The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, signed in December, 1987, represented a significant step in this area, lessening the danger of potential nuclear war between the two major superpowers and between the opposing alliances facing each other in Europe, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Efforts to negotiate arms control agreements in the years before 1987 had met with great difficulty, but some agreements were forged nevertheless. The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT)
The decade prior to the INF Treaty had been characterized by an intensification of the Cold War
The seriousness of the problem became evident when the Soviet Union began in 1977 to deploy its new intermediate-range missile systems,
Arms talks on the INF issue broke down completely in 1983, when the Soviet Union withdrew from further discussions with the United States. It was during this period that President Ronald Reagan characterized the Soviet Union as the “evil empire” and the Soviet leadership under Leonid Brezhnev
Widespread public demonstrations and numerous petitions in Western Europe during these years urged the United States to remove all nuclear weapons that could jeopardize the safety and lives of Europeans. Public opinion in Europe was divided, however, between those who opposed and those who supported the presence of these weapons in their midst. Many Europeans still sought tangible American protection and support in the event of Soviet aggression. The NATO governments in Europe consistently supported deployment of the American intermediate-range missile systems, seeing this as the way to provide a balance of power or equilibrium that they hoped would deter the Soviet side from miscalculating and starting a war with conventional weapons that might “go nuclear.”
This tense and dangerous atmosphere changed with the emergence of a new Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, who became the general secretary of the Soviet Union’s Communist Party in 1985. Both sides, now approximately balanced in the comparative strength of their intermediate-range weapons systems deployed in Europe, returned to the negotiating table that year to resume talks. Military and diplomatic delegations discussed the many complex technical issues that had to be resolved in reaching a satisfactory settlement.
Gradually, the two governments made sufficient compromises related to this one category of nuclear weapon to meet the strategic objectives of both states. In 1986, negotiators for the two countries finally agreed that all intermediate-range nuclear missiles should be removed from the European region. This settlement would still protect the vital national interests of both superpower and their allies in Europe while at the same time reducing the potential for conflict in Europe. Also, Gorbachev and Reagan personally began a series of high-level summit meetings in 1985 and 1986 that helped lead to the final result.
These discussions and negotiations eventually culminated in a successful agreement. Meetings held December 7-10, 1987, in Washington, D.C., became the occasion for the official signing of the INF Treaty on December 8. Gorbachev flew to the United States to sign the treaty on behalf of the Soviet Union. The importance of this agreement for arms control, and the presence of the leaders of the world’s two superpowers, made this Washington summit a major media event.
The text of the INF Treaty totaled 169 single-spaced typed pages containing seventeen articles and three annexes. Composed of four topical sections, the treaty detailed the removal and destruction of 1,752 Soviet and 859 American missiles, plus the elimination or destruction of all rocket launchers, spare parts, test and training equipment, and other supplies or facilities needed for missile maintenance and possible use. These treaty obligations, requiring the physical removal and destruction of these materials, were to be fulfilled within a three-year period.
An extensive and detailed verification plan to monitor compliance with the INF Treaty provided for mutual inspections of missile bases and facilities under U.S. and Soviet control. Observers were allowed to visit assembly and deployment sites, and thus had access to several of the most secret and sensitive locations in both countries. Once the treaty became effective in June, 1988, both sides were entitled to make short-notice inspections of designated facilities for a thirteen-year period to ensure that no violations would occur. Mutual trust was the goal, and the verification provisions made it unlikely either side could cheat on its treaty obligations. President Reagan often repeated the Russian phrase doveryai no proveryai (trust but verify) as the appropriate approach. The U.S. Senate formally ratified the INF Treaty by a vote of ninety-three to five on May 27, 1988.
The INF Treaty represented a significant step toward improved relations between the United States and the Soviet Union. Other outstanding disputes and issues affecting Soviet-American relations still remained to be resolved, including disagreements over the antiballistic missile (ABM) systems in the arsenals of both nations, American development of the Strategic Defense Initiative
The improved atmosphere between the superpowers that emerged from the INF negotiations provided momentum for further negotiations on other arms control issues, such as decreasing the number of long-range strategic missiles. This important objective was achieved in the first treaty of the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START I), signed by the two governments in 1991.
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DeLuca, Anthony R. Politics, Diplomacy, and the Media: Gorbachev’s Legacy in the West. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1998. Focuses on how Gorbachev used the mass media to promote his goals of political change at the end of the twentieth century. Chapter 4 includes discussion of the INF Treaty negotiations. -
Gorbachev, Mikhail. At the Summit: Speeches and Interviews, February 1987-July 1988. New York: Richardson, Steirman & Black, 1988. Provides the full texts of Gobachev’s important foreign policy pronouncements. -
Haslam, Jonathan. The Soviet Union and the Politics of Nuclear Weapons in Europe, 1969-1987. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1990. Presents the Soviet perspective on the subject of nuclear disarmament. -
Oberdorfer, Don. The Turn: From the Cold War to a New Era—The United States and the Soviet Union, 1983-1990. New York: Poseidon Press, 1991. Provides a comprehensive account of the problems and changes in U.S.-Soviet relations. -
Powaski, Ronald E. Return to Armageddon: The United States and the Nuclear Arms Race, 1981-1999. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000. Discussion of the arms race includes extensive attention to disarmament talks, including the INF Treaty negotiations. -
Reagan, Ronald. An American Life. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990. Autobiography presents Reagan’s own account of the road to the INF agreement. -
Shultz, George P. Turmoil and Triumph: My Years as Secretary of State. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1993. Memoir covering the period 1982-1989 includes discussion of Shultz’s perspective on the INF Treaty.
SALT I Is Signed
SALT II Is Signed
Gorbachev Initiates a Policy of Glasnost
Gorbachev Agrees to Membership of a United Germany in NATO
Bush Announces Nuclear Arms Reductions
United States and Russia Reach Nuclear Arms Reduction Agreement