This could be categorized as a war book or a science book or a technology book. Using original information from Americans, Russians and Brits involved in antimissile defense during the Cold War, it tells the behind the scenes story of Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative.
An absolutely remarkable work. . . Enormously enlightening assessment showing how the impact of the Strategic Defense Initiative was to a major degree psychological, and how SDI was fostered by the idealism of the West. Incredibly perceptive personal insights from major movers and shakers - political, scientific, management - in the U.S. and the Soviet Union and elsewhere, in particular the United Kingdom. Fascinating, priceless compilation and descriptions of the relevant science and technology in both the U.S. and the Soviet Union. -- Maj. Gen. Richard T. Boverie, USAF (Ret.), director of defense programs, National Security Council staff, 1982-1983, during President Reagan's administration.
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“The Star Wars Enigma is unique in the crowded field of literature on missile defense. As an editor at Aviation Week & Space Technology familiar with many books on the subject, I have found almost all to have an axe to grind, pro or con. Nigel's book is notable for being thorough, dispassionate and objective. I regard it as the definitive history of U.S. efforts in missile defense." – Jim Asker, executive editor, McGraw-Hill (Aviation Week)
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“Nigel Hey has beautifully captured the untold story of the technology race between the United States and the USSR. A tale of secret science at its best and at its worst, it tracks both nations’ efforts to achieve defensive superiority. Whether Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative was a legitimate effort to find ways to defend against ballistic missiles, or whether it was a devilishly clever ploy to cause the Soviets to spend themselves into bankruptcy, we will likely never know. But whatever the motives, SDIbecame the dominant theme of military research and development in the ’80s and early ’90s, until it became the finale of the Cold War competition.”— Amb. C. Paul Robinson, president emeritus of Sandia National Laboratories and chief negotiator for U.S.–U.S.S.R. nuclear testing talks in Geneva, 1988–1990
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“After a fifty-year struggle under a nuclear sword of Damocles, Western civilization triumphed over the Soviet Union and ended the Cold War. In the most rigorous scholarship yet to appear on this climactic period of history, Nigel Hey defines the critical role played in this historic victory by President Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative. The Star Wars Enigma traces the origin, the proponents and opponents, and the drama that accompanied the overturning of forty years of American defense strategy, and in so doing, removed the threat of an East-West nuclear holocaust.”—Robert C. McFarlane, national security advisor to President Ronald Reagan, 1983–1985
