Ronald Reagan was told of Hagelstein's breakthrough by Teller in 1983, which prompted Reagan's March 23, 1983, "Star Wars" speech.

The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was initiated by U.S. President Ronald Reagan on March 23, 1983, with the aim to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles by using the ground and space-based systems.

This initiative appeared as an eager attempt and was widely criticized as being unrealistic, even unscientific, as well as for threatening to re-ignite an offensive arms race, thus it was soon known as Star Wars.

However, the Soviets, conveyed the idea that the United States was actually preparing a first-strike capability with which to either "blackmail" the Soviet Union or wage and win a nuclear war. Thus, it was said that the SDI was not a defensive concept, but simply a mask for something far more ominous. It was an integral part of a vast, purely aggressive program of military preparations not just for nuclear war but has set a course toward unleashing such a war.

As a response to the SDI, the Soviets compelled to increase expenditures on countermeasures and defenses of their own which unfortunately put an unbearable strain on their economy.

Even though Reagan’s “Star Wars” never led to the deployment of an actual missile shield, it drew the Soviets into a costly effort to mount a response as the Soviets tried to keep up pace with the U.S. military buildup, but the Soviet economy couldn’t endure such competition. The race has drained Soviet coffers and triggered the economic difficulties that sped up the Soviet collapse in 1991.

SDI can be seen as a pragmatic response to the Soviet effort to seize the high ground of space and to develop advanced weapons. It is also an effort both to steal a march on the Soviets and to make sure they do not do the same to the West.

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To be continued ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Defense_Initiative

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5145921/#storyContinued

http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/aureview/1985/mar-apr/kass.html