Preventing Nuclear Annihilation: Addresses by Ronald Reagan for the Strategic Defense Initiative

Summary

On March 23, 1983, President Ronald Reagan gave an address to the nation from the Oval Office challenging “the scientific community … to turn their great talents … to the cause of mankind and world peace, [and] to give us the means of rendering … nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete.” Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative to protect America from nuclear annihilation was derided by critics as an unworkable Star Wars program, and the Clinton Administration ended the Strategic Defense Initiative in 1993. There is no effective system in place today to protect the American population from incoming missiles from an expanding list of countries with nuclear capabilities.

On April 13, 2024, Iran launched, according to Wikipedia, “around 170 drones, over 30 cruise missiles, and more than 120 ballistic missiles toward Israel”. Israel and a coalition of partners, again according to Wikipedia, “destroyed 99 percent of the incoming weapons, most before they reached Israeli airspace.” Damage from the attack was minor. While Israel is protected by an Iron Dome, the United States has no such protection.

This audiobook includes 4 speeches by President Reagan: His address introducing the Strategic Defense Initiative in 1983, his address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France in 1985, his address on national security in 1986, and his address on the Soviet-U.S. Summit in 1987.