Strategic Defense Initiative

For the computer game, see S.D.I.

A Splendid Idea

The basis for Star Wars was a nuclear X-ray laser designed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory by a young scientist named Peter Hagelstein who worked with a team called O Group, doing much of the work in the late 1970s and early 1980s. O Group was headed by physicist Lowell Wood, a protege and friend of "the father of the hydrogen bomb," Edward Teller.

Related Topics:
Nuclear - X-ray - Laser - Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory - Peter Hagelstein - Lowell Wood - Hydrogen bomb - Edward Teller

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Ronald Reagan was told of Hagelstein's breakthrough by Teller in 1983, which prompted Reagan's "Star Wars" speech. Reagan announced, "I call upon the scientific community who gave us nuclear weapons to turn their great talents to the cause of mankind and world peace: to give us the means of rendering these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete." This speech, along with Reagan's Evil Empire speech earlier that month in Florida, ushered in the last phase of the Cold War, bringing the nuclear standoff with Russia to its most critical point before the collapse of the Soviet Union later that decade.

Related Topics:
Evil Empire - Cold War - Soviet Union

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The idea was to use lasers to shoot down incoming Soviet nuclear weapons. This idea was attacked from every angle for scientific, economic and political reasons. Imminent phsyicist, Hans Bethe, went to Livermore and strenuously interrogated Hagelstein about the correctness of his theory. After much work showing multiple mathematic calculations on a nearby blackboard, the young scientist was able to convince Bethe of the completeness of his ideas, prompting Bethe to state that it was "a splendid idea," one "which has been quite carefully thought out," and that it was the only truly good one being studied at Livermore at that time, which was 1982. Later, Bethe attacked it on political grounds (see below).

Related Topics:
Soviet - Nuclear weapon - Hans Bethe

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