ABSTRACT
The plan that the Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI) would protect only missile silos, not cities, marked the end of Ronald Reagan's original idea of SDI. President Bill Clinton pledged to cut SDI spending but still supported the 'option of deploying a limited ground-based defence' for the US. President George W. Bush's speech was his strategy for post-Cold War defence policy. He urged the replacement of the 1972 Anti-ballistic missile (ABM) Treaty. This was a Cold War relic as 'mutual assured destruction' was obsolete for the realities of today's post-Cold War world. Bush cited the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks on America as evidence that the US faced 'unprecedented threats' from states such as Iran, Iraq, North Korea and Libya. The relationship between the US and the former Soviet Union has been one of cooperation after the end of the Cold War. The proposed US National Missile Defense system would have interceptor missiles based at sea and in aircraft.
