Reagans "Star Wars Speech
March 23, 1983

In the following speech, President Ronald Reagan first announced his intentions to develop a new system to reduce the threat of nuclear attack and end the strategy of mutual deterrence.

The system he proposed became known as "Star Wars," after the popular movie, because it was meant to destroy missiles from space. The Soviets feared the system would increase the risk of the United States launching a first attack because U.S. officials would not fear retaliation

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/episodes/22/documents/starwars.speech/