1983: President Reagan proposes Strategic Defense Initiative

DATE: March 23, 1983

DESCRIPTION: The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI, aka Star Wars) was a plan proposed by Ronald Reagan, the President of the USA, to use ground and space based systems to protect the US from attack by developing a “defensive umbrella” over the country to prevent incoming missiles from reaching their targets. The Soviets were concerned that the SDI would upset nuclear parity, but after the Reagan presidency ended, it didn’t have a large importance in US defense plans.

BLAME: Obviously, since Ronald Reagan was the one who proposed and fought for the SDI, he is the main cause of this event. The Star Wars movies could be also seen as a small cause for the creation of this plan due to the fact that the plan was created after the first Star Wars movie came out in an attempt to capture its futuristic sense.

TENSION INCREASE: Tensions increased somewhat because the SDI threatened to destabilize MAD; the Soviets argued that if the US didn’t have to fear the USSR’s incoming missiles, they would be more likely to launch a pre-emptive strike against them. Alongside that, the USSR would not have been able to afford to enter this area of the arms race, considering their financial status at the time. However, the SDI was also criticized as being unrealistic and unscientific, as studies showed that such a shield would be impossible with the technology currently existing, so the SDI probably wasn’t taken as seriously as other aspects of the Cold War. +1.25

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