U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy called it a “reckless ‘Star Wars’ scheme” and the American press agreed, dubbing it (rather dramatically) “The ‘Star Wars’ Speech” after the popular 1977 film by George Lucas. To those of us working in the White House at the time, President Ronald Reagan’s televised speech on March 23, 1983, was a serious and perhaps once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to defuse the Cold War confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union. The subject of the speech was and is controversial to this day.
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