Forty Years after President Reagan Unveiled the Strategic Defense Initiative

March 2023

Past Event

Forty Years after President Reagan Unveiled the Strategic Defense Initiative

Past Event

Online Only

March 20, 2023

President Ronald Reagan giving a speech on SDI (Wikimedia Commons)

March 2023

Past Event

Speakers:

Rebeccah L. Heinrichs

Senior Fellow and Director, Keystone Defense Initiative

Will Inboden

Executive Director and William Powers, Jr. Chair, Clements Center for National Security at the University of Texas

Listen to Event Audio

Forty years ago, on March 23, 1983, President Ronald Reagan addressed the American people to unveil “a vision of the future which offers hope,” namely, a program to counter the Soviet missile threat through defensive measures. Thus, the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), the missile defense system that ultimately helped the United States prevail over the Soviet Union, was born. SDI was born from Reagan’s disdain for mutual assured destruction, and to instead encourage advances in defenses.

Hudson Senior Fellow and Keystone Defense Initiative Director Rebeccah Heinrichs is joined by Will Inboden to discuss his new book, The Peacemaker: Ronald Reagan, the Cold War, and the World on the Brink. They will also reflect on President Reagan’s visionary leadership for SDI as well as lessons for today’s major powers rivalry with the Chinese Communist Party.

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