From the Grass Roots to the Summit: The Impact of US Suburban Protest on US Missile-Defence Policy, 1968–72

Abstract

Whilst most historians have focused on the importance of the nuclear balance and triangular diplomacy in shaping the progress of the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT), this paper argues that the Nixon administration was also significantly constrained by strong suburban opposition to the emplacement of anti-ballistic missile (ABM) batteries on the periphery of US cities such as Boston, Chicago, and Seattle. This groundswell of opposition increased resistance to the system in the Senate and presented an issue that could be used by liberal Democrats against Richard Nixon in the 1972 presidential election. The Nixon administration moved expeditiously to remove the ABM from cities. This was successful in quieting immediate opposition to one of the United States’ key bargaining chips at SALT. However, the administration was less adept at integrating this domestic constraint into its opening position for the talks. The Americans offered to limit ABMs to defence of national capitals, a domestically untenable offer given the strong suburban and congressional opposition to the ABM. In recovering from this error, the Americans lost much of the leverage the technological superiority of their ABM afforded them, adversely affecting the form of the final SALT accords.