U.S.-Soviet Relations: The Arms Race and Coexistence

Extract

As we move further into the 1980s there are a number of alarming trends in Soviet-American relations and in the nuclear arms race: the development of so-called “counterforce” or “first-strike” weapons; NATO's new Pershing XR II missiles, which drastically reduce the warning time of an American missile attack on the USSR, just as the Soviet SS-20s threaten Western Europe; a U.S. command system that, under conditions of intense crisis, says one expert, “is subject to strains powerful enough to trigger an unintended war”: increasingly sophisticated technology, such as that which has produced the cruise missile, complicating the verification process of future arms control agreements; a new and growing arms race in space; nuclear proliferation; the discussion of “limited” nuclear war and other strategic nuclear concepts; the failure of the U.S. to ratify SALT II…and the list goes on.