Reagan and Gorbachev Sign INF Nuclear Arms Treaty

Context

In the mid-1970s the Soviet Union began replacing older intermediate-range missiles with the mobile, multiple-warhead SS-20, altering the security balance in Europe. NATO responded in 1979 with a dual-track decision that combined planned deployments of U.S. Pershing II ballistic missiles and ground-launched cruise missiles with a call for arms-control negotiations to reduce such systems to the lowest possible levels.

The United States advanced its “zero-zero” proposal in 1981, offering to forgo new deployments if the Soviet Union dismantled all its SS-20, SS-4, and SS-5 missiles. Early talks collapsed in 1983 after the Soviets walked out, but negotiations resumed in 1985 under Mikhail Gorbachev and were advanced at the 1986 Reykjavik summit, where the sides agreed in principle to equal global limits and intrusive verification.

By mid-1987 the two governments had converged on the elimination of both intermediate- and shorter-range missiles worldwide, clearing the way for a summit in Washington.

What Happened

On December 8, 1987, President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in the East Room of the White House during a four-day summit meeting. The pact required the complete destruction, within three years of entry into force, of all U.S. and Soviet ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers, together with their launchers and associated support equipment.

The treaty text incorporated a detailed Memorandum of Understanding on data, a Protocol on Inspections providing for baseline, short-notice, and elimination inspections, and a Protocol on Elimination specifying destruction methods. At the moment of signing, the verification regime was the most stringent ever included in a nuclear arms-control agreement, featuring continuous portal monitoring at selected production facilities in both countries.

Aftermath

The U.S. Senate gave its advice and consent to ratification on May 27, 1988, by a vote of 93–5. Instruments of ratification were exchanged in Moscow on June 1, 1988, bringing the treaty into force. Destruction of the missiles proceeded on schedule, with the final declared systems eliminated by May 1991 for a combined total of 2,692 missiles removed from service.

Legacy

The INF Treaty marked the first time the superpowers agreed to reduce, rather than merely limit, existing nuclear arsenals and established precedents for on-site verification that shaped later agreements such as the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. It symbolized the thaw in U.S.-Soviet relations under Reagan and Gorbachev and contributed to the diplomatic momentum that accompanied the end of the Cold War.

Although the United States withdrew from the treaty in 2019 citing Russian violations, the 1987 accord remains a benchmark for transparency and the elimination of an entire weapon category in nuclear diplomacy.