Theyre banking on the USSRs fear of SDIin moral, economic, political, and military terms. [71], Groups of interceptors were to be housed in orbital modules. Carter said X-rays have a limited scope because they become diffused through the atmosphere, much like the beam of a flashlight spreading outward in all directions. They believed that the only way to stop the threat of nuclear war was through diplomacy and dismissed the idea of a technical solution to the Cold War, saying that a defense shield could be viewed as threatening because it would limit or destroy Soviet offensive capabilities while leaving the American offense intact. It was able to fly at high altitude, avoiding enemy radar detection and surface-to-air missile systems. U-2 Without Reagan to support it, SDIs funding plummeted in the early 1990s. Researcher Stephen Semler estimated that the Pentagon spent around $2 million in this operation to shoot down the hobbyists' balloon over Lake Huron. A 1961 decommissioned Atlas-F intercontinental ballistic missile silo complex is for sale. SAC also monitored warning systems that watched for incoming attacks. The Footnote 1 Cold War (1945-1991) Footnote 2 was a nontraditional conflict between two conflicting ideologiescommunism and democracy. 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. This boost phase intercept rendered MIRV impotent; a successful attack would destroy all of the warheads. There were several Olympic boycotts during the Cold War. Minuteman Marxism This account was also confirmed by Teller, who wrote, Fifteen years later, I discovered that [Reagan] had been very interested in those ideas (Teller 509). The Republikflucht was ended by the closure of the East German border and the erection of the Berlin Wall. URL: https://alphahistory.com/coldwar/cold-war-glossary-m-z/ Socialism is a political system which aims to transition from capitalism to communism. The United States must defend its homeland, its forces and its friends and allies against these threats. The anti-ballistic missile program was once again renamed, this time as the National Defense Agency (NDA). The United States and the Soviet Union were both superpowers during the Cold War. 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. Nuclear sharing is the Cold War practice of sharing American nuclear weapons with its NATO partners. However, on March 26, 1983,[57] the first test, known as the Cabra event, was performed in an underground shaft and resulted in marginally positive readings that could be dismissed as being caused by a faulty detector. It was meant to develop a space-based anti-missile system. Secret Speech Securitate In this speech Khrushchev denounced the tyranny, brutality and abuses of power under his predecessor, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. And the answer, to the best of my judgment, is yes. Bell Labs pointed out that although longer-range missiles flew much faster, their longer flight times would address the timing issue and their very high altitudes would make long-range detection by radar easier. Maybe that is the greatest benefit (251). NORAD is a joint US-Canadian military command centre, tasked with monitoring North American airspace for a possible attack. Second Cold War A sophisticated attacker having the technology to use decoys, shielding, maneuvering warheads, defense suppression, or other countermeasures would have multiplied the difficulty and cost of intercepting the real warheads. Once dismissed by cynics as a "conspiracy theory the New World Order is rapidly becoming a reality. ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS DEFEND THE MOTHERLAND SOVIET CONSTRUCTION MEMORIAL TO THE VICTOR SCHOOL SHOOTINGS COLD PART IS OVER AFTER THE COLD WAR IN HOT WATER COMMUNIST PARADISE POST-COLD WAR ERA FALL OF COMMUNISM EUROPEAN WALLS REPLACING USSR DOMINO EFFECT MEETING IN MALTA HUMPTY DUMPTY REDUCED THE NUCLEAR THREAT CUTTING DOWN ON VODKA US DEFICIT Scroll down to learn more. It also demonstrated the ability of the seeker to shift its aiming point from a rocket's hot plume to its cool body, a first for infrared ABM seekers. Coming so close to Armageddon motivated leaders of both nations to undertake some of the world's first nuclear arms control pacts, including the Limited Test Ban Treaty in 1963. It was the ideology that underpinned socialism in the Soviet Union and other Soviet bloc nations. The National Security Council is an executive committee overseen by the President of the United States. It was updated on February 1st, 2023. Vietnam War Secretary of State Alexander Haig recalled, I know the aftermath the next day in the Pentagon, where they were all rushing around saying, What the hell is strategic defense? (OConnell 23). National Museum of Nuclear Science & History. [35][36], In 1979, Teller contributed to a Hoover Institution publication where he claimed that the US would be facing an emboldened USSR due to their work on civil defense. "[98], In response to this when Teller testified before Congress he stated that "instead of [Bethe] objecting on scientific and technical grounds, which he thoroughly understands, he now objects on the grounds of politics, on grounds of military feasibility of military deployment, on other grounds of difficult issues which are quite outside the range of his professional cognizance or mine."[99]. A missile could be tracked, but there was nothing they could do to stop it from reaching its target. Also, since only the projectile leaves the gun, a railgun system can potentially fire many times before needing to be resupplied. Lend-Lease was the most visible sign of wartime cooperation between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Vietnam War, or Second Indochina War, was an Asian conflict involving communist North Vietnam, Viet Cong guerrillas, the United States and US-backed South Vietnam. Many such rods would be placed around a warhead, each one aimed at a different ICBM, thus destroying many ICBMs in a single attack. HOLY COW! This was later proved to be incorrect. A Minuteman is an American ballistic missile, developed in the early 1960s to carry nuclear payloads. During the Cold War, enemy agents, posing as U.S. Navy crew, sabotage a nuclear submarine and steal its anti-ballistic missile guidance system. During World War II, three countries decided to build the atomic bomb: Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union. Gorbachev was skeptical that a sharing program could be arranged, arguing, I do not take your idea of sharing SDI seriously. Theyre pursuing this program to wear us out (Rhodes 224). Although SDI was a frequent topic in negotiations with Gorbachev, Reagan was reluctant to surrender his project. The Soviet bloc countries (USSR) were pitted against the US-led Western powers. The Mutual Defence Assistance Act is an act of the US Congress, passed in October 1949. Early prototypes were essentially single-use weapons, requiring complete replacement of the rails after each firing. Mutual Defense Assistance Act All rights reserved. thermonuclear weapon The missile gap refers toan American perception, common in the 1950s, that the Soviet Union possessed a larger stockpile of ballistic missiles. It included the segmentation of greater Germany and the stripping away of its industries, leaving a primarily agricultural economy. [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. The National Security Agency or NSA is an American government agency, formed in 1952. This raised significant issues about economic and technical costs associated with defending against anti-ballistic missile defense countermeasures used by the attacking side. Ambassador to Canada Thomas Niles explained, The Europeans saw SDI as an indication that the United States, at least theoretically, was interested in backing away from this commitment to Europe and building a Fortress America, with this high-tech system that would protect us, but not them.. [103], A military officer who was involved in covert operations at the time has told journalist Seymour Hersh that much of the publicity about the program was deliberately false and intended to expose Soviet spies:[104]. Space Race A satellite nation is nominally independent but relies on a larger nation for political direction and economic support. Its policymakers wanted to contain Soviet communism to keep Europe and the world free for US companies and American trade. Memoirs. For this mission, SDIO concentrated almost entirely on the "high tech" solutions like lasers. After President Reagans speech, what had seemed outlandish became the agenda for debate (Shultz 261). In addition, SDI envisioned many space-based systems in fixed orbits, ground-based sensors, command, control and communications facilities, etc. Some analysts might well see Russia's development programme as a long-term strategy to cope with Washington's abiding interest in anti-missile defences. This Cold War glossary contains definitions for key terms, concepts and events between 1945 and 1991. Faced with this report, and the press storm that followed, the SDIO changed direction. 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. The Viet Cong was a Western term for the National Liberation Front, or NLF, a group of communist guerrillas who operated inSouth Vietnamese and between 1959 and 1975. Missile Age dawns. An Olympic boycott was when one or more nations refused to send athletes to the Olympic Games, usually as a political protest. The U.S. and the Soviets were deep in the Cold War, and Reagan felt that the SDI would provide protection against a Soviet missile attack by intercepting missiles while they were still in the air, according to Atomic Archive.

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