The nuclear freeze was a proposed agreement between the world's nuclear powers, primarily the United States and the then-Soviet Union, to freeze all production of new nuclear arms and to leave levels of nuclear armament where they currently were. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 However, the difference in the systems between the two nations meant that while the proposal was widely publicized and debated in the United States, there is little evidence that this occurred within the Soviet Union. It should be noted that this proposal was primarily one of Western activists, and was never actually a direct part of governmental negotiations between the two major nuclear powers. The term Western world, the West or the Occident ( Latin: occidens -sunset -west as distinct from the Orient) can have multiple meanings

The nuclear arms race between the two superpowers had gone on almost unabated since the Americans had developed the first atomic (fission) weapons in the 1940s, later matched by the Soviets, with both sides also developing hydrogen (fusion) weapons in the 1950s. The term arms race, in its original usage describes a competition between two or more parties for real or apparent military supremacy A superpower is a State with a leading position in the international system and the ability to Influence events and project power on a worldwide scale Nuclear fission is the splitting of the nucleus of an atom into parts (lighter nuclei) often producing Free neutrons and other smaller nuclei which may The 1940s decade ran from 1940 to 1949 Events and trends The 1940s was a period between the radical 1930s and the conservative 1950s which also leads the period to be Hydrogen (ˈhaɪdrədʒən is the Chemical element with Atomic number 1 In Physics and Nuclear chemistry, nuclear fusion is the process by which multiple- like charged atomic nuclei join together to form a heavier nucleus The 1950s Decade refers to the years of 1950 to 1959 inclusive The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) agreements of the 1970s had provided limits and quotas on the amount of these weapons, but adherence to such limits were generally regarded as unverifiable by conservatives on both sides and the limits were generally considered to be unrealistically high by liberals. This article is about the Decade 1970-1979 For the Year 1970 see 1970. Conservatism is a term used to describe political philosophies that favour Tradition, where tradition refers to various religious cultural or nationally defined

The idea for a nuclear freeze began In April 1980 when Randall Forsberg proposed the “Call to Halt the Nuclear Arms Race,” specifically for a "mutual freeze on the testing, production, and deployment of nuclear weapons and of missiles and new aircraft designed primarily to deliver nuclear weapons. Dr Randall Caroline Forsberg ( July 23, 1943 – October 19, 2007) led a lifetime of research and advocacy on ways to reduce the risk of war " The movement really began to gain traction as an issue in the early 1980s with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980—not because Reagan supported it, in fact he strongly opposed it—by those who feared Reagan's rhetoric indicated an eagerness to use nuclear weapons. The 1980s was the decade spanning from January 1 1980 to December 31 1989. Year 1980 ( MCMLXXX) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar) The impending delivery of the Pershing II medium-range nuclear missiles in Western Europe then became an even greater focus of the movement. Pershing was a family of solid-fueled two-stage Medium-range ballistic missiles designed and built by Martin Marietta to replace the Redstone missile as Reagan stated that he had no desire for a freeze, but rather a verifiable bilateral reduction, in nuclear arms. He also showed little interest in meeting with the aging Soviet leaders. When Leonid Brezhnev, whom Reagan had never met, died in November, 1982, Reagan felt justified, believing that anything that he would or could have negotiated with Brezhnev would have died with him. Year 1982 ( MCMLXXXII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link displays the 1982 Gregorian calendar) He likewise never met with Brezhnev's two immediate successors, Yuri Andropov and Konstantin Chernenko, who were also elderly and in frail health like Brezhnev, each dying within about a year after taking office. Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov (Ю́рий Влади́мирович Андро́пов Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov) ( &ndash 9 February 1984 was a Soviet politician Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko (Константи́н Усти́нович Черне́нко Konstantin Ustinovič Černenko; 24 September 1911 &ndash 10 March 1985 was During this time, the freeze issue was being pressed in the United States by left-leaning peace groups. It almost became a litmus test issue, conservatives almost invariably opposed to the idea and liberals in favor of it. A litmus test is a question asked of a potential candidate for high office the answer to which would determine whether the nominating official would choose to proceed with the appointment

When Mikhail Gorbachev became Soviet leader, Reagan met with him and began work along with him on the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), which was eventually ratified by both nations' legislative bodies and technically remains in force today, although it is considered by most strategic experts highly doubtful that the post-Soviet Russian military is actually capable of operating and successfully launching anything like the number of ballistic missiles and other strategic weapons it is allowed under the treaty. Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev ( Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachyov;; born 2 March 1931 in Privolnoye Stavropol Krai) is a Russian politician START (for St rategic A rms R eduction T reaty is a Treaty between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Ratification is the act of giving official sanction or approval to a formal document such as a treaty or constitution A legislature is a type of representative Deliberative assembly with the power to create amend and change Laws The law created by a legislature is called Legislation Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending With the fall of the Soviet Union and the resulting absence of financing for pro-freeze groups, the "nuclear freeze" has become something of a dead issue, with a more immediate concern being how better to keep the ex-Soviet nuclear stockpile and other sources of potentially fissionable and/or fusionable materials out of the hands of terrorists. Terrorism is the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion

See also

• Nuclear disarmament