Ronald Reagan

American Flag President Reagan’s SDI Program
by Michael

An important program during the administration of President Ronald Reagan was the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). This program was also called "Star Wars" by the popular press.

The concept for the Strategic Defense Initiative came from a casual conversation between the famous scientist and "father of the hydrogen bomb" Dr. Edward Teller and President Reagan. Dr. Teller told Reagan of an idea he had about using x-ray lasers in space to shoot down enemy missiles. Reagan was fascinated with this idea.

What Teller did not tell the President was that these x-ray lasers did not even exist in the laboratories and that the concept for them required exploding an atomic bomb simply by using the energy for the laser.

President Reagan's idea was to set up a large number of space satellites that would detect the launch of an enemy missile and then shoot down that missile. Essentially, he wanted to form a protective shield against possible missile attacks from the Russians.

This was an almost impossible task, but if it worked it would change the balance of power. Previously, both the US and Russia followed the MAD (mutually assured destruction) philosophy, where we would not attack because we both would be destroyed.

To make the Russians feel less threatened, he promised to give them the technology we developed, so they could have their own protective shield. The Soviets did not believe Reagan.

A major problem with pursuing the concept was that such an anti-missile defense in space was against existing treaties we had signed. It was possible to do research, but we could not actually test or employ the devices in space.

The research done on SDI was very expensive—costing us billions of dollars each year. Development was done on spy-in-the-sky satellites, space-based laser weapons The Research Cost Billions and space-based interceptors. There was also research done on ground-based anti-missile missiles as a last resort if the space-based weapons missed their targets.

What made such a defensive scheme so difficult is the fact that the enemy would not simply send up one or two missiles in such an attack. Instead, they would send up a major part of their arsenal—hundreds, if not thousands of missiles—to try to completely destroy our offensive and defensive capabilities and eliminate our major cities.

In response to our research, the Russians worked on developing their own version of SDI. Likewise, it also cost them a large amount of money, above and beyond their normal defense spending. This extra expense helped to weaken the Soviet Union's economy.

It became apparent to those working on SDI that although the technology to effectively protect against enemy missiles was years and billions of dollars away, the cost to the Soviets was even more. The economy of the U.S.S.R was not as strong as the American economy, so they could not afford to spend so much on the development of such a system. Thus, a new outlook toward SDI arose. Besides defending against possible missile attacks, SDI could also be used as an economic weapon to help cripple the Soviet economy.

The U.S. press continually criticized the program as too expensive and not feasible. Unfortunately, they did not realize or were blind to the fact that SDI was now an economic The Soviet Union's Economy weapon.

SDI ultimately proved very successful, since it was instrumental in causing the downfall of the Soviet Union. After the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) was disbanded and Communism was discontinued, Russian officials admitted that SDI was the reason. Little was said about this in the American press.

There was no longer a reason for SDI, and Congress cancelled the program in the early 90s. Air Force then changed the name of the program and continued its research. The press never f peace sign ollowed up on this and moved on to other issues.

The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was an attempt to put a defensive shield around the United States to protect against Soviet missile attacks. The Russians spent so much money trying to counter this shield, that it contributed to the downfall of the Soviet system.

The SDI program was President Reagan’s most important contribution to peace and the end of the Cold War.

Citations

Web Sites

Delong, J. Bradford. "Francis Fitzgerald on SDI and the Fall of the Soviet Union." at <http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/poltics/fitzgerad.htm> (March, 2003).

"Missile Defense Introduction." at <http://www.bits.de/wrane/bmp/intro.htm> (March, 2003)

Policy Review Online. "Reagan's Real Reason for SDI." at <http://www.policyreview.org/octoo/pavis.htm> (March, 2003)

Reagan DK. "Reagan and the Russians: SDI" at <http://www.reagan.dk/newsdi.htm> (March, 2003).

Washington Times. "SDI Editorial." at <http://www.washtimes.com/op-ed/20030323.32242921.htm> (March, 2003).

Images

Image of flags, chart, money, and peace sign from "Microsoft Office Design Gallery Live" <http://dgl.microsoft.com/?CAG=1> Images free for non-profit and personal use. (December-March, 2003).

Image of Ronald Reagan from "ArtToday.com" <http://members.clipart.com/en/index> (2003).