After all of the involvement that the U.S. had in the Middle East since Vietnam, the United States wanted to improve its relations with Iran, which led to them selling arms to them for hostages, which is against the U.S. foreign policy. Also, the U.S. used the money in order to aid the contras in Nicaragua, who were fighting the communist power. This scenario was very controversial because it was disputed whether or not president Reagan purposefully traded weapons for hostages.
The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was created by U.S. President Ronald Reagan in order to protect the United States from the Soviets potential missile threat. It was a project that was creating protection from the ground and the space. This led to the Defense Initiative Organization one year later.
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) was first introduced by U.S. President Ronald Reagan as a treaty to reduce the amount of missiles and weapons that were being produced by each nation. Similar to SALT I and II, START reduced the production of different types of arms to a certain number for both nations. This allowed the uncertainty of each nation to be gone, creating less tension. While this was not officially signed until 1991, it was still vaguely followed by both nations.
The SALT II agreement, following the SALT I treaty, was established to try and decrease the amount of weapons created by each nation (United States and the Soviet Union). While it discouraged the Soviet Union to use certain missiles, it also prevented the creation of improved missiles. While this was followed for many years, Reagan eventually stopped following it in 1986.
The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan initially due to the Islamist Mujahideen Resistance that was fighting against the communist government. The Soviets supported the communist, and therefore went into Afghanistan in order to prevent that resistance. The Soviets were there for 10 years, having a similar war against the Vietnamese as the United States. This created more tension between the United States and The Soviet Union because the United States supported the Democratic resistance in Afghanistan that the Soviets were fighting. This also got the United States involved in the Middle East again.
The Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT) was an agreement made between the Soviet Union and the United States to decrease the number of missile launchers on land. This was discussed for a few years, but finally put into action in 1971. This allowed both nations to moderate their threats, but at the same time it still proved that tension was high between the two nations
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