Reagan announces the Strategic Defense Initiative
node
In a televised address Reagan proposed a research programme aimed at rendering nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete through defences against ballistic missiles. Technically the programme never came close to that; politically it was consequential in two ways. It challenged the premise of the 1972 ABM Treaty that mutual vulnerability was the basis of stability, and it was read in Moscow as an attempt to acquire a first-strike capability by neutralising retaliation — which is why it became the obstacle on which the Reykjavik summit foundered three years later.
A node is not a place. Drawing it on a map would assert something about the world that no stored fact supports.
Read in · 1
Timeline
No dated observations are stored for this object. Atlas shows what was observed and when — it does not infer a history.
Connections · 2
- The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treatycontradicts
- Mutual assured destructionconcerns
Assembled narrative · 1
An assembled narrative is available for this object.
Observed changes · 0
No public Signals are attached to this object. Signals show what changed and when it was observed — never a direction or a rank.
Actions
/atlas?object=EVT_SDI_SPEECH_1983