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

“the ‘rIGht’ StUFF: the reaGaN revOLUtION
aND the U.S. SpaCe prOGraM”
129
Maxwell W. hunter, II. 26 hunter was a key fgure in promoting what became
SDI; indeed, he, along with three others, formed the so-called Gang of Four
that pushed the concept in Congress.
the other major fgure was retired Lt. Gen. Danny Graham, who had
advised ronald reagan on national security matters during his gubernatorial
and presidential campaigns. after reagan’s election, using project high Frontier,
help from members of the president’s kitchen cabinet, and funding from the
conservative heritage Foundation, 27 Graham pushed his own version of a spacebased
defense system. Graham felt that by redirecting the arms race to space—
where he believed the United States held the technological advantage—the
country would achieve a “technological end run” around the Soviets and once
again establish U.S. strategic superiority. 28 Once more, a belief in the positive
benefts of technological progress drove the conservative agenda in space.
reagan was disposed favorably toward antiballistic missile defense and
against MaD, as he made clear several times, even as early as his 1976 bid for
the republican nomination. 29 the process that led to reagan’s call for creation
of a space-based defense was slow and took many turns over the year and a half
between the initial September 1981 meeting in Meese’s ofce and reagan’s socalled
Star Wars speech. that story has been told in some detail elsewhere. 30
Despite the number of unconventional facets of SDI, it served as a bargaining
chip in arms negotiations, namely in regards to the Nuclear and Space talks
(NSt) in Geneva, not unlike the role of Nixon’s Safeguard in SaLt I talks.
through this diplomatic dialogue, which started in March 1985, the United
States hoped to legitimize SDI and push its claims that the Soviet Union had
violated the 1972 aBM treaty. For its part, the U.S.S.r. denounced SDI as an
impediment to arms control, and at the reykjavik October 1986 summit talks,
the Soviet Union proposed that both sides observe the aBM treaty for another
ten years, including the restriction on testing space-based ballistic missile
defense systems outside the laboratory. the United States refused. In 1987, the
Soviets “decoupled” the SDI from treaty negotiations; ending the program
was no longer a prerequisite to an agreement. During September 1987 talks in
26. Baucom, 119; hunter, “Strategic Dynamics and Space-Laser Weaponry,” manuscript, October 31,
1977, fle 338, box 13, X-33 archive.
27. Graham, Confessions of a Cold Warrior: An Autobiography (Fairfax, va: preview press, 1995), 118-120;
Baucom, 145-146 & 150; Berman, 67-68; David vogel, Fluctuating Fortunes: The Political Power of
Business in America (New York, NY: Basic Books, 1989), 224-225; Dilys M. hill and phil Williams,
“the reagan presidency: Style and Substance,” 11 in hill, raymond a. Moore, and Williams, eds.,
The Reagan Presidency: An Incomplete Revolution? (New York, NY: St. Martin’s press, 1990).
28. pratt, 96; Baucom, 164.
29. pratt, 102, 103 & 104; Baucom, 130.
30. See, for example, Baucom; Graham, Confessions; pratt; Stares; and edward reiss, The Strategic
Defense Initiative (New York, NY: Cambridge University press, 1992).