LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Strategic Defense Initiative (Sdi): Ronald Reagan
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The concept for the Strategic Defense Initiative came from a casual conversation between the famous scientist and "father of the hydrogen bomb" Dr. Edward Teller and President Reagan. Dr. Teller told Reagan of an idea he had about using x-ray lasers in space to shoot down enemy missiles. Reagan was fascinated with this idea.
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The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) is a U.S. research and development program designed to create an effective defense against nuclear-missile attack, initiated by President Reagan in 1983. As envisioned, the system uses a "layered" defense in which enemy missiles would come under continuous attack from the time they are launched to just before they reach their targets, a total of about 30 minutes.
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Despite President Reagan's bold initiative, despite the success of SDI in bringing down the Soviet Union, numerous budget cuts have whittled the SDI into the Missile Defense Agency, and America still has no defense against ballistic missiles. President Bush's initiatives hold out some hope, but much effort is being wasted on the land-based systems, which do not provide the most effective defenses, and worse, cost more.
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Ever since President Reagan's speech in March 1983 announcing the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) as a means to "make nuclear weapons obsolete," the program has been surrounded by controversy. Critics charged that SDI was technologically impossible, and ... it would lead to a destabilizing arms race in space. Nobel laureate Hans Bethe and popular scientist Carl Sagan echoed these views. But despite Soviet and domestic dove opposition, the
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This situation soon changed with the announcement by President Reagan on 23 March 1983 of the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). The early version of the SDI program envisioned nearly perfect defenses against very large missile attacks, which would require highly-capable space-based intercept systems. Many of the weapons concepts required very large electrical power levels, and space nuclear reactors were a leading candidate to meet these requirements.
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Lyndon LaRouche is the leading exponent of the American System of physical economy in the world today, and author of the policy known as Strategic Defense Initiative, which was briefly adopted by the Reagan Administration. A member of the 21st Century Science & Technology scientific advisory board, he submitted this article on June 5, 2000. LaRouche, currently a candidate for the Democratic Presidential nomination, won 22 percent of the Democratic vote in the recent Arkansas primary.
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Ronald Reagan