10.19.2003
Way Out There In the Blue: Reagan, Star Wars and the End of the Cold War
Should be required reading for any history class.
Friday night on Letterman (10/17), Thom Yorke of Radiohead is wearing a "No Star Wars" T-shirt. No, he's not saying something about George Lucas, he's reinforcing a lesson of this excellent text.
1. Star Wars won't work now, or any decade soon.
2. It was never designed to "protect America," rather, it might keep a couple of nuke silos in operation after 30 minutes into a nuclear conflict.
3. Most American's think we are protected by a missle shield.
4. We spent $60 billion from 1983 - 1999 "developing" anti-missle defenses, many of which would violate our 1972 ABM Treaty.
5. Most importantly, it shows that the USSR was going to change/fall/implode with or without Reagan's nasty, bull-headed rhetoric about the Evil Empire. Reagan didn't bring the Soviet's down.
I'll stop here, it's a good book with great research.
Friday night on Letterman (10/17), Thom Yorke of Radiohead is wearing a "No Star Wars" T-shirt. No, he's not saying something about George Lucas, he's reinforcing a lesson of this excellent text.
1. Star Wars won't work now, or any decade soon.
2. It was never designed to "protect America," rather, it might keep a couple of nuke silos in operation after 30 minutes into a nuclear conflict.
3. Most American's think we are protected by a missle shield.
4. We spent $60 billion from 1983 - 1999 "developing" anti-missle defenses, many of which would violate our 1972 ABM Treaty.
5. Most importantly, it shows that the USSR was going to change/fall/implode with or without Reagan's nasty, bull-headed rhetoric about the Evil Empire. Reagan didn't bring the Soviet's down.
I'll stop here, it's a good book with great research.
