Video: 'National Security: President Reagans Address on Defense and National Security 3/23/83'

(Wednesday, March 23, 1983, 8:02 p.m. EST; during the Cold War) — U.S. President Ronald Reagan tonight called for the development of an anti-missile defense system to protect the United States from potential nuclear attacks.

In effect, Reagan proposed to make obsolete the current United States policy of relying on massive retaliation by its ballistic missiles to counter the threat of a Soviet nuclear attack.

Video: 'The US Strategic Defense Initiative: Ronald Reagan's Star Wars Program'

In a television address from the White House, he coupled his proposal with his strongest appeal yet for his administration’s program to increase military spending.

Reagan declared that a new missile defense program — The Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was dubbed “Star Wars,” after the futuristic Hollywood movie, by some — presented “a vision of the future which offers hope,” even though the necessary technological breakthroughs “may not be accomplished before the end of this century.”

Video: '45 85 Part 15' ('Star Wars' at 4:01)

He called on American scientists “to turn their great talents” to the  effort.

As he spoke, a dozen nuclear scientists were having dinner and receiving briefings at the White House. They included Hans Bethe, a Nobel laureate in physics, and Edward Teller, known as the father of the hydrogen bomb.

Video: 'ABC News: Images of the 80s' ('Star Wars' at 11:52)

By the early 1990s, with the Cold War ending and nuclear arsenals being rapidly reduced, political support for SDI collapsed.

SDI officially ended in 1993, when the Clinton Administration redirected the efforts toward theatre ballistic missiles and renamed the agency the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO).