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Technically, Reagan was not a neocon, but in a looser sense, perhaps...With the beginning of the microprocessor/microchip revolution, and advances in satellite telemetry, I do not know that anyone could be confident of what SDI would amount to when proposed in the mid- 80s. There was no way to rule out the potential for an advantage, at least. Indeed, the Union of Concerned Scientists assumed that there would be a sufficient kill- rate achieved that their doomsday scenario had the USSR throwing their arsenal at us in desperation, on the calculation "use it or lose it"....On the point about the relative costs of counter- measures, I agree that they might have been less than the cost of SDI, but I do not think there was any doubt that we could outspend them....Remember, Gorbachev made SDI the deal- breaker in Reykjavik. Why?... |
