Asked by: Jaydy Sladovsky
business and finance defense industry

When President Reagan invested in the Strategic Defense Initiative also known as Star Wars he was putting money towards?

Last Updated: 1st May, 2020

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During the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan initiated the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), an anti-ballistic missile program that was designed to shoot down nuclear missiles in space. Otherwise known as “Star Wars,” SDI sought to create a space-based shield that would render nuclear missiles obsolete.

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In this manner, what nickname was given to the Strategic Defense Initiative?

SDI was derisively nicknamed by Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy as "Star Wars", after the 1977 film by George Lucas. By the early 1990s, with the Cold War ending and nuclear arsenals being rapidly reduced, political support for SDI collapsed.

Beside above, how much money was spent on the Strategic Defense Initiative? Richard Halloran (news article, Oct. 27) reports a Council on Economic Priorities study of President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, which estimates the final cost of a United States space defense system at $400 billion to $800 billion.

Keeping this in consideration, what was the Strategic Defense Initiative effect on the Cold War?

The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), also known as Star Wars, was a program first initiated on March 23, 1983 under President Ronald Reagan. The intent of this program was to develop a sophisticated anti-ballistic missile system in order to prevent missile attacks from other countries, specifically the Soviet Union.

What was the name given to the space based missile defense plan proposed by Ronald Reagan in 1983?

Strategic Defense Initiative

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Where is Ronald Reagans star?

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