I think this Wikipedia claim is from Reaganās autobiography. But according to The Dead Hand, written by a third-party historian, Reagan was already very concerned about nuclear war by this time, and had been at least since his campaign in 1980. Itās pretty interesting ā apparently this concern led to both his interest in nuclear weapon abolition (which he mostly didnāt talk about) and in his unrealistic and harmful missile defense plans.
So according to this book, The Day After wasnāt actually any kind of turning point.
and in his unrealistic and harmful missile defense plans.
Some people argue that Reaganās āStar Warsā missile defense plan did succeed at itās real goal, convincing the Soviets that they would never be able to keep up with Americaās R&D, so it was better to make peace. From this point of view, whether SDI was realistic or not misses the point, that Reagan succeeded in creating the impression that it was realistic. That is, from this point of view, he succeeded in bluffing the Soviets.
Other factors contributed, like the collapsing Soviet economy, Russian defeat in Afghanistan, etc. SDI was a kind of economic war, we can out spend you etc.
I think this Wikipedia claim is from Reaganās autobiography. But according to The Dead Hand, written by a third-party historian, Reagan was already very concerned about nuclear war by this time, and had been at least since his campaign in 1980. Itās pretty interesting ā apparently this concern led to both his interest in nuclear weapon abolition (which he mostly didnāt talk about) and in his unrealistic and harmful missile defense plans.
So according to this book, The Day After wasnāt actually any kind of turning point.
Some people argue that Reaganās āStar Warsā missile defense plan did succeed at itās real goal, convincing the Soviets that they would never be able to keep up with Americaās R&D, so it was better to make peace. From this point of view, whether SDI was realistic or not misses the point, that Reagan succeeded in creating the impression that it was realistic. That is, from this point of view, he succeeded in bluffing the Soviets.
Other factors contributed, like the collapsing Soviet economy, Russian defeat in Afghanistan, etc. SDI was a kind of economic war, we can out spend you etc.