This Cold War site contains articles, perspectives and sources on global events and tensions between 1945 and 1991. HOLY COW! When reformer Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in 1985, he began to drastically cut Soviet military spending, particularly the anti-ballistic missile program the USSR had started in response to SDI. smaller, space-launched missiles known as Brilliant Pebbles., the Soviet economy was teetering on the brink of disaster, Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), has studied the possibilities of space-based anti-ballistic missile technology, a speech to the Federal Assembly in March 2018. 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. Some members of the mujahideen were later associated with the Taliban and Osama bin Ladens al-Qaeda. It suggests that governments initiate wars to allow capitalists to produce more weapons, thus generating greater profits. The experiment validated stabilization, tracking, and pointing concepts and proved that a laser could be relayed from the ground to a 60cm mirror on an orbiting satellite and back to another ground station with a high degree of accuracy and for extended durations.[68]. The Sino-Soviet split was a breakdown in relations between China and the Soviet Union during the mid to late 1960s. Prague Spring Project A119 was an American project, devised in 1958 to secure advantage in the Space Race. This was part of Canada's role during the Cold War to defend North America against an attack from the Soviet Union. Early prototypes were essentially single-use weapons, requiring complete replacement of the rails after each firing. The Method Behind Putin's New START Madness The project was conceived in November 1986 by Lowell Wood at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The American Physical Society (APS) had been asked by the SDIO to provide a review of the various concepts. Proponents of SDI argued that SDI development might instead cause the side that did not have the resources to develop SDI to, rather than launching a suicidal nuclear first strike attack before the SDI system was deployed, instead come to the bargaining table with the country that did have those resources and, hopefully, agree to a real, sincere disarmament pact that would drastically decrease all forces, both nuclear and conventional. nuclear deterrence These colonies became self-governing and many were subjected to Cold War pressures and influences. The Cold War: Crash Course US History #37 - YouTube Cold War movies list - IMDb Polling data from the 1980s supports this notion. Jessica Savitch reported on the technology in episode No.111 of Frontline, "Space: The Race for High Ground" on PBS on November 4, 1983. After World War II, the United States and its allies, and the Soviet Union and its satellite states began a decades-long struggle for supremacy known as the Cold War. To many, it was as unexpected as it was provocative. Origins of the Cold War Following the surrender of Nazi Germany in May 1945 near the close of World War II, the uneasy wartime alliance between the United States and Great Britain on the one hand and the Soviet Union on the other began to unravel. START I - The Nuclear Threat Initiative The Space Race refers to American and Soviet competition in rocket technology and space exploration, from the 1950s to around 1975. Ronald Reagans advocacy of the Strategic Defense Initiative struck me as bizarre, Gorbachev wrote in his memoirs. As the Cold War began to ramp up during the 1950s and the Soviet Union continued their ICBM development, the Army and Air Force began to compete for a role in strategic missile defense, which led to the 1957 initiation of the Army's nuclear-capable Nike Zeus ABM interceptor. U.S. Admits Weather Pushed Chinese Balloon Off Course, U.S. Shot Down 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. For example, the published stories about our Star Wars programme were replete with misinformation and forced the Russians to expose their sleeper agents inside the American government by ordering them to make a desperate attempt to find out what the US was doing. [90] Soviet motivations behind attempting to launch components of the Skif laser in the form of Polyus were, according to interviews conducted years later, more for propaganda purposes in the prevailing climate of focus on US SDI, than as an effective defense technology, as the phrase "Space based laser" has a certain political capital. It was an important source of American strategic ideas during the Cold War. The nuclear football travels with the president wherever he goes. In fact, it was for this reason that the ideal was so appealing. Without Reagan to support it, SDIs funding plummeted in the early 1990s. Cold War glossary M-Z Although SDI was a frequent topic in negotiations with Gorbachev, Reagan was reluctant to surrender his project. A neutron bomb is a thermonuclear weapon that delivers high amounts of radiation but with low explosive yield. Sputnik [75] Detailed studies were undertaken by several advisory boards, including the Defense Science Board and JASON, in 1989. GPALS was approved by President George H.W. Gaddis, John Lewis. His policy of containment is known as the Truman Doctrine. Reagan confirmed this fact in a 1984 letter: Frankly, I have no idea what the nature of such a defense might be. [85][86], In 1986 Carl Sagan summarized what he heard Soviet commentators were saying about SDI, with a common argument being that it was equivalent to starting an economic war through a defensive arms race to further cripple the Soviet economy with extra military spending, while another interpretation was that it served as a disguise for the US wish to initiate a first strike on the Soviet Union.[88]. South-East Asia Treaty Organisation (or SEATO) Ir also The US argument that these are purely. Rollback aimed to reduce the size of the Soviet bloc, rather than to contain it. Perestroika is a Russian word meaning restructuring. 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). Brilliant Pebbles was a non-nuclear system of satellite-based interceptors designed to use high-velocity, watermelon-sized, teardrop-shaped projectiles made of tungsten as kinetic warheads. [100] Parnas said he joined the panel with the desire to make nuclear weapons "impotent and obsolete" but soon concluded that the concept was "a fraud". After the rocket was recovered, the particle beam was still operational. An curved arrow pointing right. self-determination The first Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I) was signed by Mikhail Gorbachev and George Bush in Moscow in July 1991. They said that a defensive system was costly and difficult to build yet simple to destroy, and claimed that the Soviets could easily use thousands of decoys to overwhelm it during a nuclear attack. Love, Poverty And War: Journeys And Essays [PDF] [5qkamljh8p80] 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]. 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. The Harpoon (RGM-84/UGM-84/AGM-84) is a U.S.-designed subsonic antiship cruise missile that has been in service since 1977. It refers to the waves of emigration from East Germany to West Germany, or other non-Soviet countries, between 1949 and 1961. President Ronald Reagan announces the Strategic Defense Initiative, March 23, 1983, National Security Decision Directive (NSDD) 12, announced the SDI program in a television address broadcast nationally, As U.S. Nearly $13 billion in U.S. aid was sent to Europe from. Each firing of the railgun produces tremendous current flow (almost half a million amperes) through the rails, causing rapid erosion of the rail's surfaces (through ohmic heating), and even vaporization of the rail surface. The Missile Age begins when German V-2 missiles -- which have one-ton payloads and travel faster than the speed of sound -- strike London during World War II. The United Nations is a multilateral body, formed in 1945. The Soviet predisposition to see deception behind the SDI was reinforced by their assessment of US intentions and capabilities and the utility of military deception in furthering the achievement of political goals. Neither country could attack the other without the strong probability that both sides would be annihilated. [2], The Strategic Defense Initiative Organization (SDIO) was set up in 1984 within the US Department of Defense to oversee development. 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. You do away with yours (Shultz 260). Warsaw Pact Three weeks before the announcement of SDI, Reagan gave his famous evil empire speech, which branded the Soviet Union as the unequivocal enemy of the United States. [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 Truman Doctrine refers to the United States foreign policy with regard to communism. [20] Early development contracts were awarded to L3Harris and SpaceX. Copyright: The content on this page may not be republished without our express permission. Nuclear winter describes a theoretical period of several months following a major nuclear exchange. SAC also monitored warning systems that watched for incoming attacks. Political scientist Kerry L. Hunter explained this phenomenon: The power of Reagans Star Wars visionlay in its utopian characteristics. This site is created by Alpha History and contains 314,783 words in 411 pages. It defeated French colonial forces in the Second Indochina War (1946-54). Madman theory Ostpolitik was a Dtente era policy adopted by West Germany and its leader, Willy Brandt. qhhsubiquity.com Informacin detallada del sitio web y la empresa McCarran Act After the SDIO closed, the MIRACL was tested on an old Air Force satellite for potential use as an anti-satellite weapon, with mixed results. We look at its origins, how it operates and how it affects the lives of everyone. Morgenthau Plan The Mutual Defence Assistance Act is an act of the US Congress, passed in October 1949. A missile could be tracked, but there was nothing they could do to stop it from reaching its target. missile gap 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. The Cold War Timeline - History 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). America vs. Russia and China: Welcome to Cold War II McCarthyism saw hundreds of individuals interrogated and/or punished for their alleged communist sympathies. [106], George Lucas, Lucasfilm CEO and the creator of Star Wars, sued Reagan for stealing the name based on his franchise. This possibility was particularly significant because, during the 1980s, the Soviet economy was teetering on the brink of disaster. [34] More tentatively, it is also suggested that the Zarya module of the International Space Station, capable of station keeping and providing sizable battery power, was initially developed to power the Skif laser system. August 25, 2021. A thermonuclear weapon is a device that uses both fusion and fission, thus delivering a greater explosive yield. The Truman Doctrine demonstrated that the United States would not return to isolationism after World War II, but rather take an active role in world affairs. Edward Teller, for example, was an early proponent of the satellite X-ray laser, although it was ultimately ineffective. Ostpolitik The U.S.-Soviet Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, known as START I, was signed 31 July 1991 by U.S. President George H.W. A conductive pellet (the projectile) is attracted down the rails by electric current flowing through a rail. After his election in 1980, President Reagan demonstrated a continued interest in anti-ballistic missile technology from the early stages of his administration. As U.S. Additionally, the SDIO invested in computer systems, component miniaturization, and sensors. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Strategic_Defense_Initiative&oldid=1139087432, The immediate tactical action to reduce vulnerability, such as, Counter strategies which exploit a weakness of an opposing system, such as adding more. Title: Cold War glossary M to Z Soldiers of the Soviet Union and the United States did not do battle directly during the Cold War. The Kremlin expressed concerns that space-based missile defenses would make nuclear war inevitable. 110113, The Star Wars Enigma: Behind the Scenes of the Cold War Race for Missile Defense By Nigel Hey. New York, NY: Penguin Press, 2005. The Treaty of Brussels was a 1948 agreement between five European states: Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The Morgenthau Plan was an American plan for managing post-war Germany, devised in 1944. Nuclear weapons were developed in 1944-45 and first used in two attacks on Japan (August 1945). Ashton Carter, then a board member at MIT, assessed SDI for Congress in 1984, saying there were a number of difficulties in creating an adequate missile defense shield, with or without lasers. When Reagan prompted technology sharing again, Gorbachev stated "we cannot assume an obligation relative to such a transition", referring to the cost of implementing such a program. National Liberation Front (see Viet Cong). Strategic Air Command (or SAC) Harpoon | Missile Threat NATO is a trans-Atlantic military alliance, formed in 1949. Missile Age dawns. Through an award winning Digital Archive, the Project allows scholars, journalists, students, and the interested public to reassess the Cold War and its many contemporary legacies. [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. It was detonated in remote northern Russia in 1961. Later on, the program focused on smaller, space-launched missiles known as Brilliant Pebbles.. Wind of change 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. It was one of the Cold Wars most repressive and brutal security forces. Glasnost made the Soviet economy more open. The Madman theory was a strategy or ploy used by United States president Richard Nixon during the Cold War. ", "L3Harris, SpaceX win Space Development Agency contracts to build missile-warning satellites", "Nuclear Weapons, China, and a Strategic Defense Initiative for this Century", "Today in Space and Missile Defense History", "The Space Review: Plagiarism in several space history articles (page 2)", "The secret laser-toting Soviet satellite that almost was Ars Technica", "Here Is the Soviet Union's Secret Space Cannon", Confessions of a Cold Warrior: An Autobiography, "Possible Soviet Responses to the US Strategic Defense Initiative Interagency Intelligence Assessment.1983. The Cold War and Missile Defense | SpringerLink These weapons would be very difficult to destroy, even in a preemptive nuclear strike, and thus the Americans and the Soviets reached a certain equilibrium. Although he was influenced by scientists such as Teller, the Strategic Defense Initiative was ultimately Reagans personal vision because it was based on technology that had not yet been invented. Although they protested the development of SDI, the opposition of the United States European allies had little effect on the programs development. According to George Shultz, the Secretary of State during Reagans presidency, the meeting with Teller was the first gleam in Ronald Reagans eye of what later became the Strategic Defense Initiative (Shultz 261). 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. They are colloquially known as hydrogen bombs or H-bombs. The rocket carried the Polyus spacecraft, which was equipped with a laser system, Skif, and a missile system, Kaskad. The NSC is tasked with formulating and coordinating policy with regard to national security, foreign policy and military activities. Or with that defense, he could then say to them, I am willing to do away with all my missiles. While it's nice to hear that they're extremely worried about it, what are they willing to do to combat it.