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Concept

Strategic Defense Initiative

Reagan administration program, announced on 23 March 1983, to research a missile defense system.

2 links, 2 backed by primary records

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Dates
23 Mar 1983 –
Also known as
SDI, Star Wars

President Ronald Reagan announced the Strategic Defense Initiative on 23 March 1983. The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library says it “ultimately helped end the Cold War”; that view is disputed.

Connections 2

caused

  • End of the Cold War According to Ronald Reagan Presidential Library Disputed Primary record 1

    Disputed: Pavel Podvig (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 30 April 2013) argues from Soviet archival documents that SDI did not push the Soviet Union toward economic collapse; Serhii Plokhy calls the key American role in the Soviet demise a myth.

adopted by

Timeline 2 dates
  1. 23 Mar 1983 – Strategic Defense Initiative
  2. 23 Mar 1983 United States government adopted Strategic Defense Initiative
Proof 1 source
  1. Star Wars and SDI: Defending America and the Galaxy (exhibit), Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Primary record
    With SDI, President Reagan was able to unleash America’s entrepreneurial spirit. The project ultimately helped end the Cold War.
    On March 23, 1983 in a televised address to the nation, President Ronald Reagan announced his intention to embark upon groundbreaking research into a national defense system that could make nuclear weapons obsolete, called the Strategic Defense Initiative, or SDI.
Page history 1 change
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