The Star Wars Enigma: Behind the Scenes of the Cold War Race for Missile Defense Book

The year 1982 was a desperate time for the U.S. defense community. The United States had no effective system to protect itself completely from a Soviet attack with nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles, which the Soviet Union possessed in large quantity, and the doomsday philosophy of mutually assured destruction seemed inescapable. But people in the Reagan administration, including Reagan himself, were not content with what they viewed as a morally unacceptable status quo. When Adm. James Watkins, a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, asked him, "Wouldn?t it be better if we could develop a system that would protect, rather than avenge, our people?" the president?s commitment to the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) became certain. The administration created an SDI office, procured funding, and directed scientists to work on technologies capable of destroying incoming missiles. It is a peculiar fact, then, that the actual products of science and technology played relatively minor roles in the effort to rid the world of the fear of nuclear warfare with lasers, antimissile missiles, and battle stations in space. In Washington, Moscow, London, and elsewhere, interplay between people?s desires and fears molded the strange psychology that gave SDI its unusual place in world history. The Soviets had been experimenting with exotic antimissile programs since the 1960s and had concluded they were not viable. Still, amid the economic implosion threatening their country in the late 1980s, SDI?s possibilities rankled the Soviets. Ultimately, SDI reflected Western political idealism, a powerful ingredient in the struggle to finally conquer the terrors of the Cold War and to allay the threat of nuclear holocaust. The Star Wars Enigma tells this dramatic story.Read More