mar 23, 1983 - Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)/Star Wars/ New Arms Race

Description:

A renewal of the arms race

- With a good economy, President Reagan deliberately increased the defence budget of the USA and started to produce new weapons

- He knew that the Soviet Union’s economy was very weak and could not keep up with the cost of a new arms race

- This was a system of deploying satellites in orbit which can track and destroy any nuclear intercontinental missiles

- The SDI forced the Soviet Union to increase its defence spending but its resources were already stretched

Arms Race:

USA 6% of GDP

USSR 16% of GDP

Added to timeline:

Date: