EXPIRES: 1995

WRITTEN: 1983-03-23

I call upon the scientific community in our country, those who gave us nuclear weapons, to turn their great talents now to the cause of mankind and world peace, to give us the means of rendering these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete.

Ronald Reagan

Address to the Nation on Defense and National Security, March 23, 1983 (announcing the Strategic Defense Initiative)

Written: 1983-03-23

Addressed to: by the 1990s

Source: Address to the Nation on Defense and National Security

Author: Ronald Reagan

Category: War & Conflict

Annotation

Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative — immediately dubbed 'Star Wars' — proposed a shield against ballistic missiles. Over $30 billion was spent before the program was restructured in 1993. No comprehensive missile defense was ever deployed. The program's actual strategic impact may have been psychological: some historians credit it with accelerating Soviet economic collapse.

What Actually Happened

SDI never produced a working comprehensive missile defense. It was restructured as the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization in 1993. Limited missile defense systems were later deployed but never approached the 'impenetrable shield' Reagan described.

#missile-defense#star-wars#SDI#cold-war#nuclear-weapons

1930

The coming of the wireless era will make war impossible, because it will make war ridiculous.

Guglielmo Marconi

2003

It could last, you know, six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.

Donald Rumsfeld