Reagan Administration's Strategic Defense Initiative Heightened Cold War Tensions

Explain how the Reagan Administration's Strategic Defense Initiative heightened Cold War tensions.

Soviet intelligence services went on watchful in 1981 to observe for US preparations for initiating a shocking nuclear hit against the USSR and it allies. This warning was escorted by a new Soviet intelligence collection program, known by the acronym RYAN, to observe signals and provide early warning of US target. Two years later a major war scare exploded in the USSR and this study traces the beginning and capacity of Operation RYAN, its relationship to the war scare and Reagan administration's strategic defense initiative (SDI) heightened Cold War tensions.

In 1983, from disagreement in the beginning of postwar decades, to détente in the late 1960's and 1970's and back to disagreement in the early 1980's, US-Soviet relations had come full circle. Outbreak of "Cold War II" was declared by the Europeans. This situation was compared to the 1962 Cuban missile crisis and the 1948 face-off Berlin by the French President Francois Mitterrand. George Kennan, (from the doyen of Soviet-spy), exclaimed that the new superpower mess had the "familiar characteristic, the unfailing characteristic of a march toward war, and nothing else". Such fears were overstated; that even during this time of heightened tension, it is impossible in this world were the superpowers squared off in a crisis likely to escalate into full-scale nuclear war.

However, a typical day for Rip Van Winkle waking up in 1983 would have remembered little if any progression in the international political climate and he would not have realized that a considerable period of détente had appear and left while he slept. It is obvious to say that the post-détente "second Cold War" was in essence a war of words which meant to be solid and at times stirring words.

In March 1983, President Reagan accuse the Soviet Union as the "center of evil in the world" and as an "evil kingdom". In rebuttal, Soviet General Secretary Yuri Andropov stated that the U.S. President is insane and a liar. Due to this result, conflicts grew and things became nasty. Moscow continually indicted President Reagan of admiring the heat of war and compared him to Hitler. Such overstatement was more of a result than a cause of tension, but it masked real fears. However, the Hitler comparison was more than a symbolic surplus, but rather a firm thought decision in the mind of the Soviet leaders.