MD and Blackmail

The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), so-called ‘Star Wars’ plan, contained an ambitious conception to decoy and eliminate Soviet’s nuclear missiles in the outer space with laser beam. But Former national security adviser Richard Allen recalled the past later that “Reagan did not think of SDI as a perfect shield to protect the U.S.. He pursued the plan with the aim of making Soviet do something in response to the US SDI plan.

The U.S. historians testify that Soviet was collapsed by the U. S.’s multifarious ‘secret operations’ during the Reagan administration, not by itself. ‘Star Wars’ plan was also one of such operations, and in the long run had been used as blackmail in order to lead waning Soviet due to excessive military budge to extract remaining resources to the end.

Peace in the cold war period had been maintained by the terrifying balance of the nuclear powers. The maintenance of peace during the period was based on so-called the nuclear strategy of `Mutually Assured Destruction(MAD),` assuming that a ‘second strike’-that is, a retaliatory strike by an arsenal crippled by opponent’s potential `first strike` can rain destructive damages on opponent country.

The 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty was a device to guarantee each other the ability of second strike to destroy other nation. That is, the treaty aims at lessening the number of missiles in order to eliminate temptations to take the initiative in an attack in case that opponent’s nuclear ability can become annihilated.

Recently President Bush declared the MD plan. If the U.S. deploys the Missile Defense system, the nuclear ability of most countries hostile to the U.S. will become neutralized remarkably. It signals the advent of Pax Americana era, that the U.S. alone controls the whole world as only a superpower.

Hence Reagan’s ‘Star Wars’ plan and Bush’s MD plan resemble in various senses. Astronomical figures of budget and harsh debates surrounding its feasibility, etc are the cases. And the MD plan also resembles ‘Star Wars’ plan in the sense that it could be blackmail to potential opponent nations.

Song Moon-Hong songmh@donga.com