It was Nixon’s second visit to the Soviet Union–his first was as Vice President, in 1959. The trip was to meet with Leonid Brezhnev, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The Moscow Summit of 1972, as the meetings between the two were known, was held from May 22 and May 30, 1972.
Coming on the heels of his much celebrated visited to China, the Moscow Summit was a signature success for Nixon. It was a seminal event in the development of East-West Cold War detente. The key agreement to come out of the summit related to curbing the growth of nuclear arsenals with the signing of the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, which was also the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I).
Read Full Article »