ABSTRACT
The perception in Europe is that a protected United States (US) or an enhanced deterrence credibility of US strategic forces would underpin the willingness of the US to come to the support of North Atlantic Treaty Organization Europe. The fact of the matter is that the Soviet Union does have strategic defenses deployed to a much greater extent than the US does. The major portion of them is aircraft, including American strategic aviation, which is by far bigger than ours. The Soviet Union itself does understand well the importance of strategic defense, and it does whatever is possible, within certain restraints, including the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. The capability to punish malevolence is going to remain the primary means of deterring or stabilizing, as it were, a relationship. Strategic Defense Initiative is a program to discover whether something is possible. The political genesis of the offer to share technology is worth recollecting.
