Remembering the Space Age. - Black Vault Radio Network (BVRN)

“the ‘rIGht’ StUFF: the reaGaN revOLUtION
aND the U.S. SpaCe prOGraM”
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about a pax americana similar to the oceanic pax Britannica, in which national
security and commercial interests were intertwined and mutually serving. 18
the conservative military strategy in space also took as its starting point
the rejection of the conduct of the Cold War instituted by the administration of
president richard Nixon. the two cardinal facets of Nixon’s Cold War policy
that reagan and the conservatives rejected were détente and the 1972 antiballistic
Missile treaty (SaLt I). Instead, president reagan chose to heighten the
struggle against what he termed “the evil empire.” reagan also spoke against
the reigning defense philosophy known as mutual assured destruction (MaD).
the MaD strategy, simply stated, was that each party would be able to wreak
destruction on the other, even if an initial strike substantially reduced the missile
and nuclear forces of one side. essentially, each side became the hostage of the
other. reagan’s stance against MaD combined with ongoing studies of highenergy
lasers and satellite weaponry to become SDI.
the military use of space was not new but rather a constant over the
course of the Cold War. Starting in the 1960s, the U.S. military relied on
satellites for reconnaissance (photographic, electronic, and oceanic), early
warning of ofensive missile launches, detection of nuclear explosions,
communication, navigation, weather, and geodetic information. One might
even say that, at least at one point in the confict, all space eforts served a Cold
War agenda. the apollo program represented the Cold War at one level.
Following the fight of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, on May 25, 1961,
president Kennedy initiated the space race, a new Cold War battleground. he
warned that the United States had to challenge the Soviet Union’s space feats
“if we are to win the battle that is now going on around the world between
freedom and tyranny.” 19 the Cold War and the nation’s civilian space programs
were now joined. this was truly total warfare that conscripted civilians and
civilian agencies into a global struggle.
During this war, the construction of defensive systems served as a
bargaining chip in treaty negotiations with treaties helping to limit the
seemingly boundless search for, and construction of, new weapons. SDI was no
exception; however, it took military space policy in a new direction by proposing
to place defensive weapons in space. In contrast, earlier space strategies had
18. erik K. pratt, Selling Strategic Defense: Interests, Ideologies, and the Arms Race (Boulder, CO: Lynne
rienner publishers, 1990), p. 96. See also, Graham, High Frontier: A New National Strategy
(Washington: the heritage Foundation, 1982); Graham, The Non-Nuclear Defense of Cities: The
High Frontier Space-Based Defense Against ICBM Attack (Cambridge, Ma: abt Books, 1983).
19. Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: John F. Kennedy, 1961 (Washington, DC:
Government printing Ofce, 1962), 403-404. asif a. Siddiqi, Challenge to Apollo: The
Soviet Union and the Space Race, 1945-1974, NaSa Special publication-4408 (Washington:
NaSa, 2000), shows that Soviet military ofcers soon lost interest in civilian space projects
following Sputnik. they felt that civilian projects hurt their attempts to fund military
rocketry programs essential to the Cold War.