After the announcement of the USSR disregarding settlements made in the SALT II Treaty in 1984 and 1985, President Reagan officially backed out of the treaty after years of delay and disagreements on the pact on May 26th, 1986. President Reagan went on record stating, “Given this situation… in the future, the United States must base decisions regarding the strategic forces structure on the structure and magnitude of the threat posed by Soviet strategic forces and not on standards contained in the SALT structure.” President Reagan also stated that he did not intend on increasing the number of strategic offensive weapons in the United States. The SALT II Treaty would have provided an equal and limited number of anti-ballistic missiles on each side and would have banned the use of ICBM missiles. Despite the cancellation of the treaty, the United States and Soviet Union managed to make enough pacts of peace in the years prior to avoid the need for offensive weapons in the future.
