The Star Wars Enigma: Behind the Scenes of the Cold War Race for Missile Defense

The year 1982 was a desperate time for the U.S. defense community. The United States had no effective system to protect itself completely from a Soviet attack with nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles, which the Soviet Union possessed in large quantity, and the doomsday philosophy of mutually assured destruction seemed inescapable. But people in the Reagan administration, including Reagan himself, were not content with what they viewed as a morally unacceptable status quo. Then Adm. James Watkins, a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, asked, "Wouldn't it be better if we could develop a system that would protect, rather than avenge, our people?" With that, the president's commitment to the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) became certain. Ultimately, SDI reflected Western political idealism, a powerful ingredient in the struggle to finally conquer the terrors of the Cold War and to allay the threat of nuclear holocaust. The Star Wars Enigma tells this dramatic story.

About the Author :
Nigel Hey, author of Wonderment, says his greatest compliment as a writer came from a reviewer who remarked that his prose “can turn the rigors of joy or sadness into jewels of curiosity and adventure.” Another favorite comment came from a man who lives in Honolulu. Reading this book, he wrote, was “something that will help me become a better writer and a better person.”

Review :
"The most rigorous scholarship yet to appear on this climactic period of history." - Robert C. McFarlane, national security advisor to President Ronald Reagan, 1983-1985 "The best overview to date of what became a major catalyst for change in the 1980s... it succeeds in giving the most coherent account yet of the controversial programme that effectively ended the cold war." - New Scientist "An absolutely remarkable work... [An] enormously enlightening assessment showing how the impact of the Strategic Defense Initiative was to a major degree psychological and how SDI was fostered by the idealism of the West. Incredibly perceptive personal insights from major movers and shakers - political, scientific, management - in the U.S. and the Soviet Union and elsewhere, in particular the United Kingdom. Fascinating, priceless compilation and descriptions of the relevant science and technology in both the U.S. and the Soviet Union." - Maj. Gen. Richard T. Boverie, USAF (Ret.), director of defense programs, National Security Council staff, 1982-1983, during President Reagan's administration "After a fifty-year struggle under a nuclear sword of Damocles, Western civilization triumphed over the Soviet Union and ended the Cold War. In the most rigorous scholarship yet to appear on this climactic period of history, Nigel Hey defines the critical role played in this historic victory by President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative. The Star Wars Enigma traces the origin, the proponents and opponents, and the drama that accompanied the overturning of forty years of American defense strategy, and in so doing, removed the threat of an East-West nuclear holocaust." - Robert C. McFarlane, national security advisor to President Ronald Reagan, 1983-1985 "Contains a wealth of previously unpublished information, including new insights into the secretive Soviet space defense program." - Cold War Times "Nigel Hey has beautifully captured the untold story of the technology race between the United States and the USSR. A tale of secret science at its best and at its worst, it tracks both nations' efforts to achieve defensive superiority. Whether Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative was a legitimate effort to find ways to defend against ballistic missiles, or whether it was a devilishly clever ploy to cause the Soviets to spend themselves into bankruptcy, we will likely never know. But whatever the motives, SDI became the dominant theme of military research and development in the '80s and early '90s, until it became the finale of the Cold War competition." - Amb. C. Paul Robinson, president emeritus of Sandia National Laboratories and former chief negotiator for U.S.-U.S.S.R. nuclear testing talks in Geneva, 1988-1990"