From summit to summit

The expectations from Brezhnev&s;s meeting in the United States with regard to SALT were low. The agreement Brezhnev and Nixon would sign was not an arms control agreement, but rather agreement on intentions. The document stipulated that the aim of the talks would be replacing the Interim Agreement with a permanent agreement that would be based on quantitative and qualitative equalities. Assuming that the Soviets were increasing their strategic ballistic arsenal at a pace that would endanger the United States strategic position, Nixon intended to see in 1974 an agreement that would lead to actual reductions. Despite Nixon&s;s&s; assurances on various occasions that he would not sacrifice US interests to achieve SALT in order to save his position, and despite Schlesinger&s;s awkward reaction to Nixon&s;s reprimand, it seemed as if with the summit coming closer and closer, the Pentagon was more and more concerned that the president would do just that.