President Reagan's Zero Option Policy

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It was pretty clear from the beginning that President Reagan was willing to utilize all of his power to makes sure the goals of the INF treaty were to be accomplished. Some examples of this was when President Reagan in 1981 proposed a zero option policy. This was especially critical and a large use of his Presidential power because this was the beginning to the creation of the INF treaty. This proposal laid the framework of negotiations on reductions in all types of arms. Reagan proposed the cancellation of planned INF missile deployments by the United States if the Soviet Union agreed to eliminate three of its major missile programs (CITE). Immediately the Soviet Union rejected the zero proposal, and this made President Reagan have to step

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