Star Wars: The Strategic Defense Initiative

Preceding Reagan's presidency, the Cold War was ruled by the idea of mutually assured destruction. Mutually assured destruction, as known as MAD, was a system in which both the US and the USSR promised that if the other nation attacked them they would retaliate with nuclear annihilation, and thus the fear of complete destruction prevented any major conflicts between them. However, Reagan felt that MAD was like holding cocked guns to each others heads. In addition, he also believed that the US was falling behind in the arms race. Because of this, Reagan developed the idea of SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative) nicknamed "Star Wars". SDI's goal was to intercept and destroy incoming nuclear missiles through the use of satellites armed with lasers. However, the idea of SDI threatened the stability of MAD, much like ABMs did, because it offered a way to prevent the mutual annihilation. Thus, when Gorbachev and Reagan negotiated at conferences in Geneva and Reykjavik, Gorbachev asked Reagan to abandon SDI. Despite Gorbachev's request Reagan insisted on keeping SDI. However, SDI was a very expensive, so it was never put into place. Some historians argue that Reagan never planned on implementing SDI, but merely developed the idea to have a bargaining chip to threaten the Soviets with.