Strategic Defense Initiative

Examples of Strategic Defense Initiative in the following topics:

• The Defense Buildup and the "Evil Empire"

  • Reagan initiated a large build-up of the American military with the intention of defeating the Soviet Union in an arms race.
  • In March of 1983, Reagan introduced the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), a defense project that would use ground- and space-based systems to protect the United States from attack by strategic nuclear ballistic missiles.
  • Reagan believed that this defense shield would make nuclear war impossible, but disbelief that the technology could ever work led opponents to dub SDI "Star Wars," arguing that the technological objective was unattainable.

• The Guadalcanal Campaign

  • The initial goals of Japanese leaders were to neutralize the US Navy, seize possessions rich in natural resources, and establish strategic military bases to defend Japan's empire in the Pacific Ocean and Asia.
  • Further attempts by the Japanese to continue their strategic initiative and offensively extend their outer defensive perimeter in the south and central Pacific were thwarted at the naval battles of Coral Sea (May 1941) and Midway (June 1941) respectively.
  • Up to this point, the Allies had been on the defensive in the Pacific but these strategic victories provided them an opportunity to seize the initiative from Japan.
  • The Guadalcanal campaign was a significant strategic combined arms victory by Allied forces over the Japanese in the Pacific theater.
  • The Japanese had reached the high-water mark of their conquests in the Pacific, and Guadalcanal marked the transition by the Allies from defensive operations to the strategic offensive in that theater and the beginning of offensive operations, including the Solomon Islands, New Guinea, and Central Pacific campaigns, that resulted in Japan's eventual surrender and the end of World War II.

• Homefront Security

  • The idea of civil defense began to come of age, both worldwide and in the United States, during World War I, when it was usually referred to as civilian defense. 
  • Even before the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, the Council of National Defense was reactivated by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
  • Under the OCD, the Civil Defense Corps (CDF) were established.
  • The request was initially opposed, for the CAP was still a young and inexperienced organization.
  • Examine the role of the Civil Air Patrol and the Civil Defense Corps in monitoring home-front security during World War II.

• Coral Sea and Midway

  • The Battle of the Coral Sea and the Battle of Midway were strategic triumphs for the Allies and marked the critical point in halting Japanese expansion during World War II.
  • Although a tactical victory for the Japanese in terms of ships sunk, the battle would prove to be a strategic victory for the Allies for several reasons.
  • Luring the American aircraft carriers into a trap and occupying Midway was part of an overall "barrier" strategy to extend Japan's defensive perimeter, in response to the Doolittle air raid on Tokyo.
  • The plan was handicapped by faulty Japanese assumptions of the American reaction and poor initial dispositions.
  • Although the Japanese continued to try to secure more territory, and the U.S. did not move from a state of naval parity to one of supremacy until after several more months of hard combat, Midway allowed the Allies to switch to the strategic initiative, paving the way for the landings on Guadalcanal and the prolonged attrition of the Solomon Islands campaign.

• The Allied Push

  • German forces never regained the initiative in the East and withdrew a vast military force from the West to replace their losses.
  • They fought through several lines until reaching the main German defensive line in mid-November.
  • The Soviet advance prompted resistance forces in Poland to initiate several uprisings against the German occupation.
  • By January, the offensive had been repulsed with no strategic objectives fulfilled.
  • In Italy, the Western Allies remained stalemated at the German defensive line.

• Siege of Vicksburg

  • Vicksburg was strategically important to the Confederates.
  • The natural defenses of the city were ideal, earning it the nickname, "The Gibraltar of the Confederacy."
  • Grant initially planned a two-pronged approach, in which half of his army, under Major General William T.
  • Both of these initiatives failed.
  • Explain the strategic importance of Vicksburg to the Confederates and the role of the Union victory in securing the Mississippi River

• The European Theater

  • Italy began operations in the European region of the Mediterranean by initiating a siege of Malta in June 1940.
  • The Soviet victory at Kursk marked the end of German superiority, giving the Soviet Union the initiative on the Eastern Front.
  • Germany responded by disarming Italian forces, seizing military control of Italian areas, and creating a series of defensive lines.
  • The Western Allies fought through several lines until reaching the main German defensive line in mid-November.
  • The Soviet advance prompted resistance forces in Poland to initiate several uprisings against the German occupation.

• Foreign Policies

  • During his first month in office, President Carter cut the defense budget by $6 billion.
  • A key foreign policy issue Carter worked laboriously on was the second Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT II), which reduced the number of nuclear arms produced and/or maintained by both the United States and the Soviet Union.
  • Carter and Leonid Brezhnev, the leader of the Soviet Union, reached an agreement on the treaty in 1979 despite opposition in Congress to its ratification, as many thought it weakened U.S. defenses.
  • The efforts were initially focused on a comprehensive resolution of disputes between Israel and the Arab countries and gradually evolved into a search for a bilateral agreement between Israel and Egypt.
  • President Jimmy Carter and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev sign the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT II) treaty, June 18, 1979, in Vienna.

• The Korean War

  • On the North Korean side, Joseph Stalin "planned, prepared, and initiated" the invasion, creating "detailed [war] plans" that were communicated to the North Koreans.
  • Korea was not included in the strategic Asian Defense Perimeter outlined by Secretary of State Dean Acheson.
  • Truman believed if aggression went unchecked a chain reaction would be initiated that would marginalize the United Nations and encourage Communist aggression elsewhere.
  • Department of Defense, the United States suffered 33,686 battle deaths, along with 2,830 non-battle deaths, during the Korean War.
  • In 1953, South Korea and the United States concluded a Mutual Defense Treaty.

• The Eisenhower Administration

  • As president, Dwight Eisenhower (1953-61) presided over eight years of relative peace and moderate economic growth at home while his foreign policy initiatives, including U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, shaped the global order for decades to come.
  • Defense treaties with South Korea and the Republic of China were signed, and the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO) alliance was formed in an effort to halt the spread of Communism in Asia.
  • The initial struggle came to a close in December 1960, after Kasavubu and Mobutu overthrew Lumumba and proceeded to turn the country (later known as Zaire) into an autocracy, which was unstable long after the end of Eisenhower's term.
  • Eisenhower came under heavy criticism after the Sputnik launch, and his administration responded to this crisis with many strategic initiatives, including the creation of NASA in 1958 and a speeding up of the American space program.
  • Those initiatives were necessary for success in the subsequent administrations' effort to win the Space Race.