Weinberger: 'Reagan Helped Save the World'

NewsMax ^ | 6/6/04 | Carl Limbacher

[wagglebee]

Former Reagan Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger said Sunday that it was Ronald Reagan's staunch anti-Communism and determination to rebuild the military that "literally redeemed the country and helped save the world."

Weinberger recalled to WABC Radio's Steve Malzberg:

"When [Reagan] made his Evil Empire speech - that the Soviet Union was an Evil Empire that had to be destroyed and they couldn't coexist with us - one diplomat complained to him, 'You have destroyed 20-years of patient diplomatic effort with that one speech.' "

But the former President responded, according to his former defense chief, "Yes. And where did that 20-years worth of patient diplomatic effort get us - it got us a stronger Soviet Union and a weaker America."

But Reagan was determined to change that, Weinberger said:

"He was an enormous supporter of the military. And a very large number of people in his own administration opposed it and wanted money for their own purposes and for domestic [programs] instead of building up the military.

"And yet he knew we had to do it and he went right ahead with it and he stayed with it during his whole eight years. And as a result we have this magnificent military capability that we have today."

Weinberger said that Reagan's commitment to his principals changed the course of world history.

"I think the strong anti-Communist struggle that he put up and his determination to win the Cold War, that was the thing that ended Communism and Communist domination of Russia and of Eastern Europe."

"He quite literally redeemed the country and helped save the world."

[Veloxherc]

As far as SDI it may have been a bluff at that stage but I am sure they hoped it would be a reality someday. By the way the scientist that really pushed SDI was Edward Teller the father of the H-Bomb. Teller was pushing for the H-Bomb when all the pinko scientist like Oppenheimer (sp?) were against it.

[TOUGH STOUGH]

"Star Wars" as the left liked to call it, is practical, creative and visionary. It is the next logical technological step, imperative to the defense of our nation.

The left, who can't seem to envision it, are unimaginative and impractical fools. Not only are they devoid of any and all substantive ideas, but they fail to recognize good ideas when they encounter them, instead mocking them like the stupid idiots they have become.

[Paul Ross]

The initial claims made in the 80s were phony

There you go again. Check out the Sprint interceptor. Do you know that it was so reliable, so accurate they had to DE-TUNE it so that it would not smack into the incoming warheads???? And that was 1970's technology...albeit way ahead of its time...

Sprint Anti-Ballistic Missile

In the 1970’s, the Martin Marietta Corporation (now Lockheed Martin) in Orlando, Florida, built what is still today one of the most incredible guided missiles ever to fly. The Sprint was a part of the only anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system that the United States ever deployed. Complementing the long-range Spartan interceptor, which was intended to destroy incoming nuclear warheads before they re-entered the atmosphere, Sprint was a short-range screamer with split-second reactions that could intercept any warheads that got past Spartan when they were only seconds from their targets. Ejected from an underground silo by a hot gas generator, the two-stage Sprint accelerated so fast that it would pass a .50-calibre bullet, if fired at the same time, within a second. Atmospheric friction made the outside skin of the second stage hotter than the inside of the rocket motor. It was protected by a thick ablative layer that actually boiled away, carrying the heat with it. Sprint was tested successfully many times at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico and at the Kwajalein Missile Range in the Pacific. It was beyond-state-of-the-art technology for its day.

This image shows Sprint in its silo. The missile sits on the eject piston, which in turn rests on a ring of springs to cushion the missile from ground shocks. When the gas generator under the piston fires, the piston shoots up the launch tube (stopping when it hits the piston arrestors at the tube mouth) and the Sprint continues out of the cell, literally blasting through the frangible fiberglass, foam and rubber domed cell closure. Tan “wedges” at the missile’s midsection near the second stage fins guide it out the tube. The cutaway shroud near the top of the missile is the “foam sock,” an insulating blanket around the guidance section and warhead that keeps the components at operating temperature at all times.

[Paul Ross]

These photos should be included here...

Reagan getting "Daily Brief" from his CIA Director, William Casey.

The FIRST TEAM

[js1138]

http://dir.salon.com/books/review/2000/04/28/fitzgerald/index.html

I'm trying to find better links...

[Petronski]

I'm trying to find better links...

You'll need to do a helluva lot better than a book review in Salon written by the United Nations correspondent for the Nation. LOL

[js1138]

Some more stuff, a long read...

http://www.jerrypournelle.com/alt.mail/sdi.html

[js1138]

An enormous index of stuff (non of which I have read yet, but it looks interesting.

http://www.jerrypournelle.com/cgi-bin/perlfect/search/search.pl?p=1&lang=en&include=&exclude=&penalty=0&mode=all&q=sdi

[js1138]

You'll need to do a helluva lot better than a book review in Salon...

I've started reading the stuff on the Jerry Pournell site. He seems to be the archivist for the American SDI initiative. There's simply too much there to read in one day. There is no doubt, however, that one of the goals of SDI was to bankrupt the Soviet Union, even if the technology didn't work in the short run.

[Petronski]

...one of the goals of SDI was to bankrupt the Soviet Union, even if the technology didn't work in the short run.

Agreed. I don't question that whatsoever.

[SunkenCiv]

Note: this topic is from 6/06/2004. Thanks wagglebee.