The Control Agenda: A History of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks

Matthew J. Ambrose

Published by Cornell University Press 2018

The Control Agenda

A History of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks

Matthew J. Ambrose

https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501709371

Overview
Contents

About this book

The Control Agenda is a sweeping account of the history of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT), their rise in the Nixon and Ford administrations, their downfall under President Carter, and their powerful legacies in the Reagan years and beyond.

Matthew Ambrose pays close attention to the interplay of diplomacy, domestic politics, and technology, and finds that the SALT process was a key point of reference for arguments regarding all forms of Cold War decision making. Ambrose argues elite U.S. decision makers used SALT to better manage their restive domestic populations and to exert greater control over the shape, structure, and direction of their nuclear arsenals.

Ambrose also asserts that prolonged engagement with arms control issues introduced dynamic effects into nuclear policy. Arms control considerations came to influence most areas of defense decision making, while the measure of stability SALT provided allowed the examination of new and potentially dangerous nuclear doctrines. The Control Agenda makes clear that verification and compliance concerns by the United States prompted continuous reassessments of Soviet capabilities and intentions; assessments that later undergirded key U.S. policy changes toward the Soviet Union. Through SALT’s many twists and turns, accusations and countercharges, secret backchannels and propaganda campaigns the specter of nuclear conflict loomed large.

Author / Editor information

Matthew Ambrose received a Ph.D in History from The Ohio State University. He previously worked in the Office of the Secretary of Defense's Historical Office, and is is currently a Defense Analyst for the Government Accountability Office. He lives with his family in Arlington, Virginia.

Reviews

James Cameron, Assistant Professor of International Relations at Fundação Getulio Vargas, and author of The Double Game: The Demise of America's First Missile Defense System and the Rise of Strategic Arms Limitation:

Matthew J. Ambrose takes the reader deep inside national security deliberations from Nixon to Reagan in this enlightening history of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. Impressive in scope, The Control Agenda holds many lessons for historians and policy makers alike.

Scott Kaufman, Professor of History at Francis Marion University, and author of Ambition, Pragmatism, and Party: A Political Biography of Gerald R. Ford:

In The Control Agenda, Matthew J. Ambrose details how technology, personality, and domestic and international politics influenced efforts to restrain the superpower arms race from the 1960s through the late 1980s. Current policy makers should consult this book for lessons on the challenges inherent in nuclear-arms negotiations.

Thomas Schwartz, Professor of History, Political Science, and European Studies at Vanderbilt University, and coeditor of The Strained Alliance: US-European Relations from Nixon to Carter:

Matthew Ambrose has written a superb account of the history of the SALT process of arms control. I know of no book that tells this story from Nixon through Reagan. The Control Agenda fills a huge gap in the literature and I predict it will stand the test of time.

[A] timely, well-researched and finely articulated account on the history of the SALT process of arms control.

Ambrose is no ideologue or partisan. He is clear that the collapse of arms-limitation negotiations would have been far worse than the flawed process. But he is clear-eyed about how efforts at arms reduction struggled in the face of stronger factors.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
INTRODUCTION. THE PROMISE OF CONTROL Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. ARMS CONTROL: CONTEXT AND PRECEDENTS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	9
2. NEGOTIATION: A NEW DIMENSION IN STRATEGIC COMPETITION Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	25
3. AFTERMATH AND ADAPTATION: THE ORIGINS OF SALT II Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	55
4. “IN GOOD FAITH”: CARTER’S GAMBIT Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	79
5. “THINKING OUT LOUD”: THE STRUGGLE WITH SPRAWL Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	107
6. “SUMMARY—BLEAK”: THE UNRAVELING OF DETENTE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	145
7. INF: THE LAST GASP OF SALT Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	169
CONCLUSION. THE CONSEQUENCES OF CONTROL Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	215
NOTES Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	223
BIBLIOGRAPHY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	255
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	261

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 282
Keywords: nuclear; Cold War; Strategic Arms Limitation Talks; SALT; INF; arms control

eBook

Published: April 15, 2018
ISBN: 9781501709371