Video: 'Jimmy Carter SALT II Treaty signing June 18 1979 archival footage'

(Monday, June 18, 1979, 1:00 p.m. CEST; during the Cold War) — U.S. President Jimmy Carter and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev signed the SALT II strategic arms limitation treaty today in Vienna.

The treaty, Carter said after signing the leather-bound document, places “important new limits on both the number and quality of nuclear arms, and it allows us to continue on course toward a safer world with even more substantial limitations and reductions in SALT III.”

The United States Senate chose not to ratify the treaty after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in December 1979. The Soviet legislature also did not ratify it.

The agreement expired on December 31, 1985 and was not renewed.

Video: 'SALT 2 Strategic Arms Negotiations'