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Glite Dictionary
SALT II

SALT II

1 7.7
An agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union to limit nuclear weapons
  • proper noun
  • /sɔlt tu/
translation icon : SALT II
  • Reaching a new agreement with the Soviets on nuclear weaponry, the second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT II), was the central preoccupation of the administration.
  • SALT II Treaty
  • SALT II process
  • SALT II negotiations

Examples

  • The House of Representatives approved a nonbinding resolution calling on Reagan to continue adhering to the weapons limits set in SALT II.

    Academic text (2009)

  • Early in his presidency, Carter sent Secretary of State Cyrus Vance to Moscow to reopen the stalled SALT II process.

    Academic text (1991)

  • As was suggested above, the SALT II process did little other than justify existing building programs.

    Academic text (1991)

  • Congress also proposed an amendment that would ban spending on any arms breaking the SALT II ceiling.

    Academic text (2009)

  • Also, the SALT II experience shows how security is dependent on a nation's perceptions.

    Academic text (1991)

  • By the end of the SALT II negotiations, superpower relations were clearly in decline.

    Academic text (1991)

  • However, objectively, Americans were not more secure after the completion of the SALT II process; at best, American security was unchanged.

    Academic text (1991)

  • In retrospect, it might be argued that the Ford administration played the most crucial role in the lengthy SALT II process.

    Academic text (1991)

  • The unratified SALT II treaty would expire on December 31.

    Academic text (1990)

  • The US and Soviet Union signed SALT II in Vienna to limit the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

Surface Forms

SALT II main

Morphology

SALT + II

SALT II is an acronymic proper name for a specific Cold War treaty; the constituent tokens ('SALT' which here stands for Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, not the common noun 'salt', and 'II' meaning two) do not transparently yield the treaty meaning to a B1 learner. While 'II' signals 'second', without prior knowledge that SALT names an arms-limitation negotiation the overall referent (a specific international treaty) cannot be derived from the parts. Acronyms and named historical treaties are therefore opaque to learners who only know the literal constituents.

Etymology

SALT II gets its name from talks between the United States and the Soviet Union; SALT is short for 'Strategic Arms Limitation Talks', meetings where both sides tried to agree to limit nuclear weapons. So, SALT II refers to the second big agreement from those talks to slow the 'arms race'.