When I was trying to figure out if SDI was possible I decided to watch the Russians reaction to it since they were a nation of missiles and scientists and I wasn’t, they were totally freaked out, I have never seen them so freaked out over something as they were SDI, which told me they thought we could do it.
With the technology of the 1980s, SDI was not possible. And we knew it wasn’t. But we released fabricated test results that indicated we were close to making it work. And the Soviets, with their awe of Western technology that bordered on cargo cult status, were convinced that we were hiding our true capabilities that were beyond what we released. That was Reagan’s true genius with SDI. He goaded the USSR into bankrupting itself in trying to chase a fantasy.
Now the research done since then has yielded results. It’s just that in 1984, it was all an illusion.