Controversy and political debate triggered by the SDI program of President Reagan; How the people opposed to SDI linked it with the Star Wars movie as ridicule; Cold War policy of President Reagan.doi:10.1126/science.229.4708....
The headline this week read: “‘Star Wars’ Test Fooled Kremlin and Congress.” As an early critic of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), I was not surprised by the story: The Pentagon rigged a 1984 test purporting to show that a U.S. missile had brought down a target missile over...
“To criticize SDI as being ‘Star Wars’ is like criticizing the Manhattan Project as being ‘Star Wars,’” Pinsker says. “The whole point of both projects was to take theoretical ideas and make them a reality, which eventually both did. It didn't happen overnight with either, and bot...
On March 23, 1983, President Reagan proposed the creation of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), an ambitious project that would construct a space-based anti-missile system. This program was immediately dubbed "Star Wars" Although work was begun on t
In 1983, Ronald Reagan announced the creation of the Strategic Defense Initiative, or SDI, quickly labeled the “Star Wars” program by a critic. SDI was intended to develop defenses against Soviet ICBMs. It was not inherently a space-based program, but planners expected satellites to play a...
Controversy and political debate triggered by the SDI program of President Reagan; How the people opposed to SDI linked it with the Star Wars movie as ridicule; Cold War policy of President Reagan.doi:10.1126/science.229.4708.29Kramer, Peter...
Podvig, P. 2017a. "Did Star Wars Help End the Cold War? Soviet Response to the SDI Program." Science & Global Security 25 (1): 3-27. doi:10.1080/08929882.2017.1273665.Pavel Podvig, ‘Did Star Wars Help End the Cold War? Soviet Response to the SDI Program’, available from http:/...
Science and Global SecurityPodvig, P. 2017a. "Did Star Wars Help End the Cold War? Soviet Response to the SDI Program." Science & Global Security 25 (1): 3-27. doi:10.1080/08929882.2017.1273665.a. "Did Star Wars Help End the Cold War? Soviet Response to the SDI Program." Science...
Surely, suggested the sophisticated people, Reagan must have picked up the idea for SDI from the blockbuster movie "Star Wars," envisioning himself as kind of presidential Luke Skywalker combating the forces of darkness.If Mr. Kennedy had hoped to discredit the concept, he was making strides,...