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Key provisions©Associated Press © St. Petersburg Times, published May 2, 2001 The 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty between the United States and the former Soviet Union: Limits the scope of anti-missile systems. Based on the assumption that if both the United States and Russia are vulnerable to a devastating retaliatory nuclear attack, neither would launch a first strike. Neither party can deploy a missile defense that covers its entire territory. Either can have a defense that protects a single site, with no more than 100 interceptors deployed. Russia has such a system to defend Moscow; the United States deployed one to protect missile fields in North Dakota in the 1970s but shut it down. Ratified in 1972 and amended in 1974. Some argue the treaty is no longer in force because the Soviet Union no longer exists. Either party can withdraw from the treaty on six months notice.
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