Question

President Carter and Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev signed an agreement known as SALT II. However, President Carter did not push the U.S. Senate to ratify the treaty. Why did President Carter not fight for SALT II?
A) SALT I had already been ratified.
B) The Soviets had invaded Afghanistan.
C) The Panama Canal issue was a distraction.
D) The U.S. would be at a military disadvantage.

Answer 1

Your answer will be B

Answer 2

The right answer is "B) The Soviets had invaded Afghanistan. "

In 1979, Carter signed with the Soviet leader Leonid Brejnev the Salt-2 agreement, which limited the number of nuclear weapons of the two powers that led the Cold War. However, in December of the same year, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, allied with the United States, brought back the tension between the two countries, with real possibilities of confrontation to re-establish areas of influence in the Persian Gulf, strategic for the oil supply. In response, Carter established the embargo on the export of grain to the Soviet Union, boycotted the Moscow Olympics in 1980 and quickly ordered American troops into the Gulf, showing that he was willing to use force for the resumption of the territory. The USSR withdrew its troops in 1979, but the government of Jimmy Carter felt internally the reflexes of this military intervention, which was not totally approved by the Americans.