Salt Under the Carter Administration

President Carter (and key members of his administration) seemingly have an approach to arms control different from that of the Ford and Nixon administrations, which generally ranked strategic arms limitations below improvements in U.S.-Soviet relations. While they sought limitations that could curb the arms race and, they hoped, achieve strategic stability, they did not push their proposals to the breaking point; instead, they relied more on U.S. defense programs to achieve U.S. objectives-including that of the ability to win a nuclear war with the Soviet Union.