President Reagan Calls For New Antimissile Technology
In an address to the nation, President Ronald
Reagan proposes that the United States embark on a program to develop
antimissile technology that would make the country nearly impervious to attack
by nuclear missiles. Reagan’s speech marked the beginning of what came to be
known as the controversial Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI).
Despite his vigorous anticommunist rhetoric,
Reagan made nuclear arms control one of the keynotes of his administration. By
1983, however, talks with the Soviets were stalled over issues of what kinds of
weapons should be controlled, what kind of control would be instituted, and how
compliance with the controls would be assured. It was at this point that Reagan
became enamored with an idea proposed by some of his military and scientific
advisors, including Dr. Edward Teller, the “father of the hydrogen bomb.” What
they proposed was a massive program involving the use of antimissile satellites
utilizing laser beams or other means to knock Soviet nuclear missiles out of
the sky before they had a chance to impact the United States. Reagan therefore
called upon the nation’s scientists to “turn their great talents” to this
“vision of the future which offers hope.” He admitted that such a highly
sophisticated program might “not be accomplished before the end of this
century.”
Reagan’s speech formed the basis for what came
to be known as the Strategic Defense Initiative, though pundits immediately
dubbed it the “Star Wars Initiative.” Some scientists indicated that even if
the SDI were able to destroy 95 percent of Soviet missiles, the remaining five
percent would be enough to destroy the entire planet. Nevertheless, Congress
began funding the program, which ran up a bill of over $30 billion by 1993
(with little to show for the effort). The Soviets were adamantly opposed to
SDI, and a 1986 summit meeting between Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail
Gorbachev ended acrimoniously when Gorbachev demanded that talks on arms
control were contingent on the United States dropping the SDI program. By
December 1987, Gorbachev-desperately in need of a foreign policy achievement
and eager to reduce his nation’s burdensome defense budget-dropped his
resistance to the SDI program and the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF)
Treaty was signed. The Strategic Defense Initiative never really got off the
ground–by the mid-1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Union and with
costs skyrocketing, it was quietly shelved.