Opinion
On February 28, 1987, I resigned from-a major Strategic Defense Initiative contractor in-order to be free to publicly criticize SDI. It was a decision which has profoundly affected me, my family, and my career. I believe it was also an unusual decision; while I am not the first to criticize SDI policy, I may be the first to leave the defense establishment in order to do so.
The story begins, in 1966. New Ph.D. from Harvard in hand he began working on ballistic missile de fense systems at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory. Nearly two decades before Ronald Reagan made such work controversial, scientists like myself could count on secure funding. But I also sincerely believed our efforts might be of crucial importance in controlling the nuclear arms race. Many of us thought that a defensive shield could make nuclear warheads obsolete, although none of us knew. whether it was technically ...
