ABSTRACT
In 1984, the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization established the Office of Innovative Science and Technology (IST), charged with involving universities and small businesses in basic research on a wide range of exotic technologies relevant to the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). In the spring of 1985, IST began an aggressive campaign to recruit academic scientists and engineers for SDI research which quickly brought some three thousand inquiries from the scientific community. In conjunction with the release of an IST briefing document for potential researchers which described the academic community's reaction to SDI as "immediate and overwhelming," served as inspiration for the National Pledge of Non-Participation. In 1986, the National Pledge of Non-Participation had been signed by 3,850 faculty members and senior researchers and 2,850 graduate students and junior researchers. The best discussion of opposition to SDI research in the academic community is Jonathan B. Tucker, "Scientists and Star Wars," Union of Concerned Scientists, Empty Promise: The Growing Case Against Star Wars.
