Existing comment:
How could the United States stop a nuclear attack?
"Our only purpose -- one all people share -- is to search for ways to reduce the danger of nuclear war... We are launching an effort which holds the promise of changing the course of human history."
-- Ronald Reagan, on the Strategic Defense Initiative, March 23, 1983
Ronald Reagan proposed the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) -- a defensive shield to destroy incoming nuclear warheads before they struck. For decades, the Soviet Union and the United States had relied on Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) -- each side held more than enough nuclear warheads to annihilate the other, so neither dared attack. SDI, he thought, offered hope for a better way. If it succeeded, referred to as a"Star Wars" with other nations, including the Soviet Union. |