jan 20, 1977 - Jimmy Carter becomes President of The United States of America

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"Jimmy Carter hoped, by dramatic means, to fix it [SALT II negotiations]. He had pledged during the 1976 campaign not simply to freeze strategic arsenals but to seek deep cuts in them – he even promised ion his inaugural address to move toward the elimination of nuclear weapons altogether. But Carter had taken a still stronger position on human rights: having criticised For and Kissinger for failing to press the Russians sufficiently on the issue, he could hardly avoid doing so himself… he startled Kremlin leaders by calling for significantly greater reductions in strategic arms than the Ford administration had proposed, but he simultaneously irritated them by initiating a direct correspondence with Sakharov and by receiving Soviet dissidents at the White House. Carter himself was surprised when Brezhnev harshly reject his deep cuts proposal. SALT II was put on hold yet again." (Gaddis 2006, p. 201)

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