Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative

Abstract

Ronald Reagan’s pursuit of a divine imperium of freedom was supported by one of the most contentious foreign policy issues between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War: The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). Called “Star Wars”1 by the media, SDI was mocked by many as science fiction and fantasy, criticized by others as a dangerous catalyst that would escalate the arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union, and still others triumphantly heralded SDI as a brilliant expression of American power and ingenuity. In truth, SDI fell short of any of these claims, but it did become the centerpiece of Reagan’s strategy to change conventional discourse with the Soviet Union and gird his resolve to break what he perceived was an apocalyptic progression toward Armageddon produced by policies based in containment and détente. This chapter explores the origins of SDI, Reagan’s cognetics and SDI, and the development and incubation of SDI in the political environment Reagan faced in the early 1980s. In the end, we see that SDI was a perfect fit with Reagan’s cognetics and provided him a policy that addressed many issues and political challenges he faced in early 1983, as well as a touchstone to attract an array of enthusiastic supporters.KeywordsForeign PolicyNuclear WeaponBallistic MissileCatholic BishopNational Security CouncilThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.