This is the second of two volumes in the Foreign Relations series devoted to the START I
agreement (the “Treaty Between the United States of America and the Union of the Soviet
Socialist Republics on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms”), which
President George H.W. Bush and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed on July 31,
1991.
These chapters document the Carter administration’s approach to relations with Canada,
West Germany, and the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and
Sweden). The remaining chapters in the volume will be released as they are cleared for
publication.
The volume covers the Ronald Reagan administration’s efforts to modernize U.S. strategic
forces, identify Soviet compliance and noncompliance with existing arms control agreements,
and pursue the Strategic Defense Initiative, which President Reagan announced in March 1983
and subsequently made a central objective of his presidency.