Today on Uncommon Knowledge, Steven Hayward, author of The Age of Reagan: The Conservative Counter Revolution 1980-1989.
Teddy Kennedy, Walter Mondale, the Union of Concerned Scientists — all ridiculed Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative as unworkable. Then, at the Reykjavik summit, Mikhail Gorbachev staked his entire negotiating position on blocking SDI.
PETER ROBINSON: Why did the Soviets care so much about the Strategic Defense Initiative?
STEVEN HAYWARD: They genuinely feared that we might be able to do it—or do something that would complicate their force planning.