ABSTRACT
To answer the question whether the Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) was important in the end of the Cold War, it is necessary to determine whether the SDI was important in US–Soviet relations. The Reagan administration policies played an important role in affecting the Soviet Union. Whether it was because of the defence build-up and caused the Soviets to similarly 'build-up' their weapons procurement, and further 'spend their way to oblivion'. The Reagan administration wanted to bring about a reduction of weapons, both conventional and nuclear. Ronald Reagan himself was surprised of Soviet fears that the West was to launch a nuclear attack and was keen to get the Soviet leader in a room and persuade him that the US would never launch a first-strike. Soviet defence expenditure on strategic defence once declassified will confirm or deny the veracity of the proposition that the SDI was the straw which broke the back of the Soviet Union, exacerbating Soviet economic difficulties.
