Reagan announces the Strategic Defense Initiative
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.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty · treaty · not located
- Mutual assured destruction · concept · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
Treaty on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems
Supports the limitation of ABM deployment areas and the reasoning that mutual vulnerability was being deliberately preserved, together with the treaty's termination on American withdrawal. V55 verification basis: NOT consulted; the site limits, the protocol date and the withdrawal dates are from standing knowledge and were not checked.
United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics · 1972-05-26 · Partly verified
ABM Treaty, signed at Moscow, 26 May 1972; 1974 Protocol; United States withdrawal effective June 2002
Recorded on The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty
- SALT I and the ABM Treaty are signed in Moscow
- Reagan announces the Strategic Defense Initiative
- The Reykjavik summit
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.
- The Reykjavik summit · 1986-10-11 – 1986-10-12
- SALT I and the ABM Treaty are signed in Moscow · 1972-05-26