Arsenal of Democracy by Julian E. Zelizer

Author:Julian E. Zelizer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Basic Books

13

RAMBO MEETS THE DEER HUNTER

ON MARCH 23, 1983, President Ronald Reagan announced the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), calling for the construction of a high-tech shield to protect Americans from nuclear attack. Reagan promised voters that a hawkish national security agenda could be achieved with minimal personal sacrifice to the populace. Protected by a shield of X-ray lasers, citizens could maintain their security as government expanded the nation’s weapons arsenal, threatened adversaries, and undertook risky operations.

Critics derided SDI as an unworkable scheme, dubbing it “Star Wars.” But by doing so they somewhat played into the hands of SDI advocates, because to much of the population, if SDI connoted “Star Wars,” that meant the action-packed excitement of George Lucas’s immensely popular Star Wars movies, whose third installment, The Return of the Jedi, was set to be released in late May. As Richard Perle, who was then working for the Pentagon, said with regard to the term, “Why not? It’s a good movie. Besides, the good guys won.”1 Not for the first or last time was the old Hollywood actor turned president using film to his advantage.

As conservatives switched from being an oppositional movement to the party in power, their leaders confronted the challenges of governance. SDI was part of Reagan’s broader policy for achieving peace through strength, an idea that could be traced back to conservatism in the 1940s.

Rooted in the tradition of conservative internationalism, the president argued that the best way to win the Cold War was through conducting a massive military buildup, investing in a technologically advanced defense strategy, refusing to negotiate with the Soviet Union over arms agreements until the United States achieved military superiority, and conducting selective military operations and offering covert assistance in key hot spots of the world. The professional army, he said, would be sufficient to protect the nation, and there was no need to restore a draft. He sought to enhance America’s military strength, using technology to make confrontation less costly, without becoming bogged down in lengthy overseas commitments and without asking too much from citizens. His calls for higher defense spending were initially coupled with proposals to reduce domestic programs and constrain the ability of government through steep tax cuts.

Like a growing number of conservatives in the post-1960s era, Reagan claimed that executive power was essential and constitutionally legitimate. In response to reforms of the 1970s that had strengthened congressional war powers and constrained executive agencies that handled overseas intelligence and domestic surveillance, and because Democrats retained a powerful hold on the House, Reagan championed the authority of the president to take charge against threats facing America. He also relied on his institutional power to counteract other parts of government that were more in favor of expanding federal intervention on liberal policies like civil rights and welfare than he was. Not all conservatives were comfortable with this. Georgia Representative Newt Gingrich warned fellow conservatives one month after Reagan’s election that “the greatest danger of the Reagan administration is that conservatives will decide they can trust imperial presidents as long as they are right-wing when they are imperial.

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