Strategic Defense Initiative

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

Controversy and criticism

SDI was first dubbed "Star Wars" by opponent Dr. Carol Rosin, a former spokeswoman of Wernher von Braun who was instrumental in the development of ballistic missiles. Some critics used that term derisively, implying it is an impractical science fiction fantasy, but supporters have adopted the usage as well on the grounds that yesterday's science fiction is often tomorrow's engineering.

Related Topics:
Star Wars - Carol Rosin - Wernher von Braun - Ballistic missile - Science fiction

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ashton B. Carter, a fellow at MIT, assessed Star Wars for Congress in 1984. He said there were a number of difficulties in creating an adequate missile defense shield, with or without lasers. He said nuclear X-rays have a limited scope because they become diffused through the atmosphere, much like the beam of a flash light spreading outward in all directions. This means the X-rays needed to be close to the Soviet Union, especially during the critical few minutes of the booster phase, in order for the Russian missiles to be both detectable to radar and targeted by the lasers themselves. Opponents disagreed, saying advances in technology, such as using very strong laser beams, and by "bleaching" the column of air surrounding the laser beam, could increase the distance that the X-ray would reach to successfully hit its target.

Related Topics:
Ashton B. Carter - MIT

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Physicist Hans Bethe, who worked with Teller on both the atom bomb and the hydrogen bomb, both at Los Alamos, claimed a laser defense shield was infeasible. He said that a defensive system was costly and difficult to build, but simple to destroy, and claimed that the Soviets could easily use thousands of decoys to overwhelm it during a nuclear attack. He believed that the only way to stop the threat of nuclear war was through diplomacy and dismissed the idea of a technical solution to the Cold War, saying that a defense shield could be viewed as threatening because it would limit or destroy Russia's offensive capabilities while leaving the American offense intact. In March 1984, Bethe coauthored a 106-page report for the Union of Concerned Scientists that concluded "the X-ray laser offers no prospect of being a useful component in a system for ballistic missile defense."

Related Topics:
Hans Bethe - Los Alamos - Union of Concerned Scientists

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Teller countered that Bethe and the other anti-defense activists could not have it both ways. Teller said Bethe had helped him usher in the nuclear age, had become opposed to nuclear weapons and afraid of nuclear war. But, Bethe was also opposed to stopping the threat of offensive capabilities through massive defensive programs. Teller testified before Congress that Bethe, "instead of objecting on scientific and technical grounds, which he thoroughly understands, he now objects on the grounds of politics, on grounds of military feasibility of military deployment, on other grounds of difficult issues which are quite outside the range of his professional cognizance or mine."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Supporters of SDI hail it for contributing to or at least accelerating the fall of the Soviet Union by the strategy of technology, which was a prevalent doctrine at the time. At Reagan and Gorbachev's October 1986 meeting in Iceland, Gorbachev ardently opposed this defensive shield, and blocked discussing anything else. Supporters claim that this is because Gorbachev was worried about losing his only threat, nuclear weapons. The Reykjavik Summit had a meltdown over Star Wars, but lead to the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which some have claimed was an outgrowth of Gorbachev's fear of SDI. Opponents of the program say that Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms were the cause of the USSR's collapse and that SDI is an unrealistic and expensive program.

Related Topics:
Strategy of technology - Reykjavik Summit - Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty - Mikhail Gorbachev's - USSR

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~