Time to START, Says Reagan

The President unveils a strategic arms reduction proposal

As a candidate for the presidency in 1980, Ronald Reagan was vocally unenthusiastic about the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT). He charged that the talks had favored the Soviet Union and that the SALT II treaty, signed by Jimmy Carter but unratified by the Senate, was "fatally flawed." Yet Reagan insisted repeatedly that he was committed to the goal of "real arms control" and "equal, significant reductions." In a television ad shortly before the election, he vowed, "As President,...