How did the Strategic Defense Initiative fit into President Reagan's policies on defense spending and his determination to resist the USSR?
In 1983, Reagan continued his effort to increase the nation's military spending by urging the nation to spend billions of dollars on an antimissile defense system that could destroy missiles heading toward the United States.
Reagan called his plan the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). Critics complained that Reagan's plan was too expensive and unworkable. They called the plan "Star Wars," after the popular Hollywood film about the struggle between good and evil "long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away." As with his other efforts to boost military spending, Reagan succeeded in winning support for the plan. Although the Soviet Union no longer exists, the United States government is still considering whether to continue developing and creating an antimissile defense system.