Point Alpha, or Observation Post Alpha, was a US Army lookout in West Germany, close to the border with West Germany. The Announcement On March 23, 1983, President Reagan announced the SDI program in a television address broadcast nationally. Low-cost countermeasures like radar decoys required additional interceptors to counter. Star Wars program (see Strategic Defence Initiative). There must be something better than this, replied a shocked Reagan (Shultz 262). NATO (see North Atlantic Treaty Organisation). Over the next two years, a variety of studies suggested that this approach would be cheaper, easier to launch and more resistant to counterattack, and in 1990 Brilliant Pebbles was selected as the baseline model for the SDS Phase 1. The technology developed for the HOE system was later used by the SDI and expanded into the Exoatmospheric Reentry-vehicle Interception System (ERIS) program. The Mutual Defence Assistance Act is an act of the US Congress, passed in October 1949. The War Zone has gone into detail about just how challenging shooting down a long-range ballistic missile is, and how rickety America's defenses really are when it comes to counter such an attack . Examples of Cold War secret police agencies were the KGB (Soviet Union), the Stasi (East Germany) and the Securitate (Romania). in che latter pare of the war. [33][34], A revolver cannon (Rikhter R-23) was mounted on the 1974 Soviet Salyut 3 space station, a satellite that successfully test fired its cannon in orbit. In 2001, President George W. Bush announced his administrations plan to withdraw from the ABM Treaty within six months. By 1986, many of the promising ideas were failing. An early focus of the SDI effort was an X-ray lasers powered by nuclear explosions. The Heritage Foundation provided High Frontier with space to conduct research, and Graham published a 1982 report entitled, "High Frontier: A New National Strategy" that examined in greater detail how the system would function.[40]. This US-financed relief package provided funds to European nations to assist their reconstruction after World War II. More recently, new developments under Project Excalibur by Teller's "O-Group" at LLNL suggested that a single X-ray laser could shoot down dozens of missiles with a single shot. Two squadrons of the missile were purchased and deployed by the Canadian government in 1958. [77], Though regarded as one of the most capable SDI systems, the Brilliant Pebbles program was canceled in 1994 by the BMDO.[78]. Many[who?] Sino-Soviet split Truman pledged to support friendly nations in their struggle to resist communism. [46] The new system would cut the proposed costs of the SDI system from $53billion to $41billion over a decade. The doctrine of nuclear deterrence is the belief that maintaining a large nuclear arsenal will prevent other nations from attacking you, for fear of nuclear retaliation. The first Red Scare followed the Russian Revolution (1918-19), the second emerged in the post-war and McCarthyist eras (from the late 1940s to the early 1950s). M. D. Rosen et al., "Exploding Foil Technique for Achieving Soft X-Ray Laser," GPALS was approved by President George H.W. The criticism was that SDI could have potentially allowed an attacker to survive the lighter counter-strike, thus encouraging a first strike by the side having SDI. In which John Green teaches you about the Cold War, the decades-long conflict between the USA and the USSR. In 1987, the American Physical Society concluded that the technologies being considered were decades away from being ready for use, and at least another decade of research was required to know whether such a system was even possible. The Outer Space Treaty of 1967, which requires "States Parties to the Treaty undertake not to place in orbit around the Earth any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction, install such weapons on celestial bodies, or station such weapons in outer space in any other manner"[101] and would forbid the US from pre-positioning in Earth orbit any devices powered by nuclear weapons and any devices capable of "mass destruction". Sagdeev later acknowledged, If Americans oversold [SDI], we Russians overbought it.. MAD postulated that intentional nuclear attack was inhibited by the certainty of ensuing mutual destruction. SDI was controversial in some sectors, and was criticized for threatening to destabilize the MAD-approach potentially rendering the Soviet nuclear arsenal useless and to possibly re-ignite "an offensive arms race". "This is a clear emotional and psychological. Prague Spring [32] Though classified at the time, a detailed study on a Soviet space-based laser system began no later than 1976 as the Skif, a 1 MW Carbon dioxide laser along with the anti-satellite Kaskad, an in-orbit missile platform. A 1985 Gallup poll reported that 61% of respondents replied affirmatively to the question, Would you like to see the United States go ahead with the development of (SDI), or not?. Copyright 2022 by the Atomic Heritage Foundation. This tour helped ease US-Chinese tensions and paved the way for Richard Nixons official visit to China in February 1972. Options included both space-based and ground-based lasers, as well as a wide variety of missiles and tracking systems. Ukrainian Air Force explains why Russians are using Shahed UAVs again, Ukrainska Pravda reports, citing Yurii Ihnat, spokesperson for the Air Force of Ukraine. It was updated on February 1st, 2023. During this time, the world was largely divided into two ideological camps the United States-led capitalist "West" and the Soviet-dominated communist "East." Canada aligned with the West. Only the space stationed nuclear pumped X-ray laser concept would have violated this treaty, since other SDI systems, did not require the pre-positioning of nuclear explosives in space. The nuclear football is a briefcase carried by a military attache to the US president. did not view SDI as an escalation. Two days after announcing SDI, Reagan signed NSDD 85, which authorized the development of an intensive effort to define a long term research and development program aimed at an ultimate goal of eliminating the threat posed by nuclear ballistic missiles, but in a manner consistent with our obligations under the ABM Treaty and recognizing the need for close consultations with our allies. According to the Reagan administration, SDI was not a violation of ABM because it was only pursuing research and development, not deployment. ", "Did Star Wars Help End the Cold War? Orthodox historians [73][74] It was designed to operate in conjunction with the Brilliant Eyes sensor system. A neutron bomb is a thermonuclear weapon that delivers high amounts of radiation but with low explosive yield. SDI was criticized for potentially disrupting the strategic stability afforded by the doctrine of mutual assured destruction. New York, NY: Doubleday, 1995. In a speech to the Federal Assembly in March 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized the United States decision to withdraw from ABM and asserted the ability of Russian nuclear forces to penetrate any potential anti-ballistic missile system. nuclear winter Or with that defense, he could then say to them, I am willing to do away with all my missiles. Through the magnetic forces that this system achieves, a force is exerted on the projectile moving it down the rail. It did not take into account limited launches, accidental launches, rogue launches, or launches by non-state entities or covert proxies. URL: https://alphahistory.com/coldwar/cold-war-glossary-m-z/ Additionally, the SDIO invested in computer systems, component miniaturization, and sensors. Viet Minh [89], In 1987 a disguised Mir space station module was lifted on the inaugural flight of the Energia booster as the Polyus and it has since been revealed that this craft housed a number of systems of the Skif laser, which were intended to be clandestinely tested in orbit, if it had not been for the spacecraft's attitude control system malfunctioning upon separation from the booster and it failing to reach orbit. In the bleak days of the Cold War, espionage veteran George Smiley is forced out of semi-retirement to uncover a Soviet . [38], In the fall of 1979, at Reagan's request, Lieutenant General Daniel O. Graham, the former head of the DIA, briefed Reagan on an updated BAMBI he called High Frontier, a missile shield composed of multi-layered ground- and space-based weapons that could track, intercept, and destroy ballistic missiles, which would theoretically be possible because of emerging technologies. Soviet bloc The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), derisively nicknamed the "Star Wars program", was a proposed missile defense system intended to protect the United States from attack by ballistic strategic nuclear weapons (intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles). Although Reagan was sincerely invested in SDI for the purposes of national security and never intended for it to be a bargaining chip, many of his advisors acknowledged its potential as a negotiating tool. It was originally built to test missile defense concepts, In 1984, officials within the United States Department of Defense (DoD) suggested it was the site of a prototypical anti-satellite weapon system. Reagan Doctrine Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and theory of history, developed in the 1800s by Karl Marx. Alternatively, watch this nine-minute explainer video for an overview of the Cold . START has since been renewed three times. The technology was also used to develop the Tactical High Energy Laser, (THEL) which is being tested to shoot down artillery shells.[64]. superpower Mutually assured destruction was a Cold War principle which suggested that a premeditated nuclear attack was unlikely, since both sides knew that the other would retaliate. The American Physical Society (APS) had been asked by the SDIO to provide a review of the various concepts. In other cases, like Excalibur, they dismissed the concept entirely. The LACE satellite also included several other experiments to help develop and improve SDI sensors, including target discrimination using background radiation and tracking ballistic missiles using Ultraviolet Plume Imaging (UVPI). Rollback was a foreign policy objective of US president Ronald Reagan. In the end, Polyus failed to reach orbit and quickly broke apart. Brilliant Eyes was a simpler derivative of the SSTS that focused on theater ballistic missiles rather than ICBMs and was meant to operate in conjunction with the Brilliant Pebbles system. Stalinist describes an individual or group who is loyal to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, or who attempts to replicate aspects of Stalins leadership, such as strict authoritarianism or a cult of personality. These overruns are baked into the system. For example, if it had been much cheaper to add attacking warheads than to add defenses, an attacker of similar economic power could have simply outproduced the defender. A revolution is a period of rapid political, social and/or economic change in a particular nation or region. Above all else, Soviet leaders feared that SDI would pave the way for weaponizing space. Copyright: The content on this page may not be republished without our express permission. Gaddis, John Lewis. Also, since only the projectile leaves the gun, a railgun system can potentially fire many times before needing to be resupplied. The Red Scare was hysteria over the perceived threat posed by Communists in the U.S. during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States, which intensified in the late 1940s. Its policymakers wanted to contain Soviet communism to keep Europe and the world free for US companies and American trade. Glasnost made the Soviet economy more open. Stalinist The INF Treaty, which eliminated all short-range (310-620 miles) and intermediate-range (620-3420 miles) nuclear missiles, was signed at the Washington Summit later that year. Now they are exhausting the air defence system, identifying the locations. His policy of containment is known as the Truman Doctrine. That is, attacking elements of the defensive system. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty requires "Each of the Parties to the Treaty undertakes to pursue negotiations in good faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament, and on a treaty on general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control." Without Reagan to support it, SDIs funding plummeted in the early 1990s. View all posts by Nwo Report. Volume 1: Project Summary", "Accelerator-driven Nuclear Energy | Accelerator Driven Systems | Transmutation - World Nuclear Association", Statement of Lieutenant General Malcolm R. O'Neill, USA, Director, BMDO before the Committee on National Security, House of Representatives, April 4, 1995, Low-power Atmospheric Compensation Experiment (LACE). So there were no prosecutions. To many, it was as unexpected as it was provocative. Truman Doctrine [92][93], Historians from the Missile Defense Agency attribute the term "Star Wars" to a Washington Post article published March 24, 1983, the day after the speech, which quoted Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy describing the proposal as "reckless Star Wars schemes", a reference to the fantasy franchise Star Wars. Solidarity is a trade union formed by Polish shipworkers in September 1980. A thermonuclear weapon is a device that uses both fusion and fission, thus delivering a greater explosive yield. It played an indispensable role in ensuring the predictability and . This possibility was particularly significant because, during the 1980s, the Soviet economy was teetering on the brink of disaster. Along with reduced Cold War tensions, Gorbachev was aware that the U.S. Congress was cutting SDIs budget and had been assured by physicist Andrei Sakharov that the missile defense technology was far from complete. A Minuteman is an American ballistic missile, developed in the early 1960s to carry nuclear payloads. What if free people could live secure in the knowledge that their security did not rest upon the threat of instant U.S. retaliation to deter a Soviet attack, that we could intercept and destroy strategic ballistic missiles before they reached our own soil or that of our allies? he said. [75] Detailed studies were undertaken by several advisory boards, including the Defense Science Board and JASON, in 1989. The Speech of Hope was a public address, given by US Secretary of State James F. Byrnes in Stuttgart, Germany in September 1946. Their Project Defender studied all sorts of systems, before abandoning most of them to concentrate on Project BAMBI. Cold War - UPSC Notes:-Download PDF Here. Another criticism of SDI was that it would require the United States to modify previously ratified treaties. The KKV was equipped with an infrared seeker, guidance electronics and a propulsion system. Posted BY: | NwoReport (Natural News) Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter also a former United States Marine Corps officer joins Mike Adams in a far-reaching interview that covers Ukraine, Russia, NATO, and Nord Stream. Decades before, the two superpowers had successfully developed intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) as well as effective second strike capabilities such as nuclear submarines. August 25, 2021. No theatrical effects were used. Space Race And we played it for all it was worth (Shultz 264). [50], After test failures with the first three flight tests because of guidance and sensor problems, the DOD reported that the fourth and final test on June 10, 1984, was successful, intercepting the Minuteman RV with a closing speed of about 6.1km/s at an altitude of more than 160km (99mi).[51]. The Star Wars dream allowed Americans to avoid a very stark truth that was practically intolerable to face: there was nothing they could do to protect themselves from nuclear annihilation outside of cooperating with the Soviets (Rhodes 180). Railguns face a host of technical challenges before they will be ready for battlefield deployment. Its role was to gather information and intelligence by monitoring, intercepting and deciphering radio and signals traffic. 2. [20] Early development contracts were awarded to L3Harris and SpaceX. "There is good evidence that in the late 1960s the Soviets were giving serious thought to both explosive and nonexplosive nuclear power sources for lasers of an unknown type. Policy makers tied it closely with the domino theory. According to a 1983 US Interagency Intelligence Assessment, there was good evidence that in the late 1960s the Soviets were devoting serious thought to both explosive and non-explosive nuclear power sources for lasers. Title: Cold War glossary M to Z Reagan instructed Secretary of State Shultz to give Soviet Ambassador to the U.S. Anatoly Dobrynin an advance copy of the speech announcing SDI. The National Security Agency or NSA is an American government agency, formed in 1952. Stacked with hardliners and anti-communists, Team Bs report greatly exaggerated Soviet weapons stockpiles and falsely claimed that Moscow was willing to initiate war with the US. To prove this point, the president suggested that the United States could eventually share SDI with the Soviet Union. After the rocket was recovered, the particle beam was still operational. The A-35 was the only Soviet ABM system allowed under the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. British newspaper The Guardian followed up on this report, in its own article amusingly titled "Object downed by U.S. missile may have been amateur hobbyists' $12 balloon". Minuteman "Soviets could have laser able to blind US satellites", "A Newly Declassified CIA Paper Details A Tense Subplot in the Cold War Arms Race", "Moscow's Response to US Plans for Missile Defense", Software Aspects of Strategic Defense Systems, Protocol to the Treaty between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems, "Scientist Said to Assert Fraud in 'Star Wars', "Army Accuses SDI Critic of Falsifying Credentials", "That One Time When Lucasfilm Sued President Reagan's Star Wars Program", Strategic Defense Initiative Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, Interview with George Keyworth about Star Wars Program, Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives, Possible Soviet Responses to the US Strategic Defense Initiative. The primary application of this doctrine started during the Cold War (1940s to 1991), in which MAD was seen as helping to prevent any direct full-scale conflicts between the United States and the Soviet Union while they engaged in smaller proxy wars around the world. The missiles were deployed at basing. First, the rails guiding the projectile must carry very high power. Faced with this report, and the press storm that followed, the SDIO changed direction. Physicists Hans Bethe and Richard Garwin, who worked with Edward Teller on both the atomic bomb and hydrogen bomb at Los Alamos, claimed a laser defense shield was unfeasible. The particle beam concept was demonstrated to basically not work, as was the case with several other concepts. The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and its subsequent protocol,[102] which limited missile defenses to one location per country at 100 missiles each (which the USSR had and the US did not), would have been violated by SDI ground-based interceptors. As Gorbachev recalled, Reykjavik was the site of a truly Shakespearean drama.Success was a mere step away, but SDI proved an insurmountable stumbling-block (Gorbachev 418). Rollback aimed to reduce the size of the Soviet bloc, rather than to contain it. The Harpoon has also undergone multiple upgrades to improve its range and guidance. This Cold War site contains articles, perspectives and sources on global events and tensions between 1945 and 1991. Although the program was never officially canceled, it was renamed under President Bill Clinton as the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO). The Soviet response to the SDI during the period of March 1983 through November 1985 provided indications of their view of the program both as a threat and as an opportunity to weaken NATO. Throughout most of the Cold War, American nuclear power was the primary deterrent which prevented a Soviet invasion of Western Europe. U.S. History American History: The Cold War September 21, 2011 President John Kennedy, right, meeting with Soviet Ambassador Andrei Gromyko, second from right, and other Soviet officials in. This system was never deployed, but the technology of the system was used in the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system and the Ground-Based Interceptor currently deployed as part of the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system.[55]. Speech of Hope It was meant to develop a space-based anti-missile system. That R&D program aimed to develop the world's first effective anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system. Post-colonialism refers to the period following colonial rule and the effects on societies ruled by colonial powers. Another challenge with the railgun system is projectile survivability. An anti-ballistic missile systemone which would give the United States complete protection from the Soviet Unionwas the natural next step. Stasi Research out of hypervelocity railgun technology was done to build an information base about railguns so that SDI planners would know how to apply the technology to the proposed defense system. Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) systems were . Advancements in new sensors and microprocessors allowed all of this to be packaged into the volume of a small missile nose cone. In 2019, space-based interceptor development resumed for the first time in 25 years with President Trump's signing of the National Defense Authorization Act. Launched on the same rocket as the RME, the Low-power Atmospheric Compensation Experiment (LACE) satellite was built by the United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) to explore atmospheric distortion of lasers and real-time adaptive compensation for that distortion. The Strategic Defence Initiative was a missile defence program, initiated by the Reagan administration in 1983. Russification describes any move to impose Russian language or culture onto non-Russian people or regions. Firsc used agai nsc London in June 1944. che V-1 was an effective weapon svstem. [83] [42], On March 23, 1983, Reagan announced SDI in a nationally televised speech, stating "I call upon the scientific community in this country, those 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. A 1961 decommissioned Atlas-F intercontinental ballistic missile silo complex is for sale. If you would like to suggest a term for inclusion in this glossary, please, Cold War memory quiz events 1945 to 1950, Cold War memory quiz events 1950 to 1959, Cold War memory quiz events 1980 to 1991, Cold War memory quiz terms and concepts (I), Cold War memory quiz terms and concepts (II). The Politburo is the executive council or cabinet of ministers in the Soviet Union and other socialist nations. Cold War leaders who utilised Stalinist methods included Kim Il-sung (North Korea), Nicolae Ceausescu (Romania) and Enver Hoxha (Albania). It would cost much less for the US to build another Excalibur than the Soviets would need to build enough new ICBMs to counter it.