INF Treaty

Official Title:  Treaty Between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Elimination of their Intermediate-Range and Shorter-Range Nuclear Missiles

The Treaty permanently bans all U.S. and Soviet ground-launched missiles with a range of between 500 and 5500 kilometers (that is 300-3400 miles).  It does not include short-range nuclear forces with a range of less than 500 km, strategic weapons with a range of over 5500 km, or air- and sea-launched missiles of any range.  Click here to see the specific missiles slated for destruction.
 

The INF Treaty took six years to negotiate.  During most of that time, the Soviet Union avoided moving toward a resolution.  The U.S.S.R. in fact had little reason to negotiate such a treaty.  They had their latest state-of-the-art missiles deployed in Europe, whereas NATO had yet to deploy any missiles since the 1960s, when the last obsolete missiles had been withdrawn from Europe.
 

President Reagan proposed a "zero-zero" approach to INF missiles on November 18, 1981.  He stated that the U.S. would not deploy its 108 Pershing IIs and 464 ground-launched cruise missiles if the Soviet Union would dismantle its 250 SS-20s and over 350 SS-4 and SS-5s.  This would mean there would be no intermediate-range missiles in Europe.  The Soviets, needless to say, shot it down.

At Geneva on November 30, 1981, the Soviets proposed that NATO reduce its nuclear forces to 300 INF missiles, and it would do the same.  By specifying NATO instead of the U.S. alone, this counted British and French nuclear forces with American forces.  This way the Soviets could still have more forces deployed than the U.S., as a deterrent to British and French forces.  Reagan and his crew weren't too keen on this one.

On March 30, 1983, Reagan announced that he would only deploy between 0 and 562 INF missiles in Europe, if the Soviets agreed to reduce their deployed missiles to the same number.  The Soviets refused, and furthermore stated that if U.S. INFs were deployed they would walk out of the negotiations.  Sure enough, in November of 1983 the U.S. began to deploy, and on the 23rd of that month the Soviets walked out of the talks.

Soviet diplomat Yuli Kvitsinsky walks out of the INF talks, November 1983.

Talks did resume that next year, but the first indication that the Soviets were as serious as Reagan was came on January 15, 1986, when Gorbachev outlined a 3-stage program to eliminate all nuclear weapons by the year 2000.  With respect to INF missiles, he proposed to eliminate all U.S. and Soviet intermediate-range missiles over a 5 to 8 year period.  British and French nuclear forces would be frozen, but not reduced.  While this plan did not cover everything, it showed that Gorbachev was willing to make a serious effort to reduce nuclear forces.

Soviet SS-20 missiles to be destroyed in Kazakhstan

On July 28, 1987, Reagan proposed a plan for implementing a "global double zero" outcome, which would eventually become the INF Treaty itself.  The proposal called for:

  the global elimination of all U.S. and Soviet intermediate-range missiles

  the global elimination of all U.S. and Soviet shorter-range, ground launched missiles

  the destruction of missiles and launchers which are to be eliminated

  no conversion of INF missiles and launchers to other types of weapons systems

  provisions to protect the transfer of existing U.S. and Soviet INF missiles and launchers to any third party

  strict and effective verification processes, made simpler by the acceptance of global double zero
 

Reagan and Gorbachev exchange instruments of ratification

The Treaty was signed in December of 1987, and ratified on June 1, 1988.
 
All information obtained from "Understanding the INF Treaty," a publication of The Office of Public Affairs, United States Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, Washington, DC, pp. 1-19.  Pictures scanned from the same publication by me.
 

 

President Reagan accepts an OSIA (On-Site Inspection Agency) gift for his presidential library in Simi Valley, Calif., from former Agency director Major General Robert Parker, USAF, in 1991. The memento is a piece of the last Soviet SS-20 intermediate-range ballistic missile destroyed at Kapustin Yar under provisions of the INF Treaty.

 

 text and picture from the On-Site Inspection Agency Homepage