The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was proposed by U.S. President Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983,[1] to use ground-based and space-based systems to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles. The initiative focused on strategic defense rather than the prior strategic offense doctrine of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD). The Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) was set up in 1984 within the United States Department of Defense to oversee the Strategic Defense Initiative. Reagan was a vocal critic of Mutual Assured Destruction, and the Strategic Defense Initiative was an important part of his defense policy intended to end MAD as a nuclear deterrent strategy, as well as a strategic initiative to neutralize the military component of Soviet nuclear defenses.[2] The ambitious initiative was widely criticized as being unrealistic, even unscientific, as well as for threatening to destabilize MAD and re-ignite an offensive arms race.[3] SDI was derided, largely in the mainstream media, as Star Wars, after the popular 1977 film by George Lucas. In 1987, the American Physical Society concluded that a global shield such as Star Wars was not only impossible with existing technology, but that ten more years of research was needed to learn whether it might ever be feasible.[4] Peggy Kanneman Jill Recktosh Donna Noroski
Posted on: Tue, 04 Nov 2014 02:29:00 +0000
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