I created this blog to share reflections related to my book “Death Rays and Delusions,” which provides the perspective of a scientist who played a key role in the creation and evolution of the Star Wars beam weapon program. From 1983-1986, I helped to prepare the plan for Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), also known as the “Star Wars” program, and then became its first deputy director and chief scientist. My story explains the strange, ironic and humorous events of my career as “Reagan’s Ray Gun.” Practically overnight, I found myself thrust into a high stakes world of presidents, generals, multi-billion dollar budgets, laser beams and nuclear annihilation as I faced a mind-boggling assignment–to help create a shield in space of intercontinental missiles and laser beams that could destroy any incoming missile and defend America from attack. In my autobiographical narrative, largely based on personal notes, I describe my transition from working on fusion research in a national laboratory, including many close interactions with Soviet scientists, to becoming a global scientific diplomat charged with helping the president achieve the destruction of the Soviet Union. I detail my work with political and scientific leaders who spanned the spectrum of total opposition and skepticism to unbridled optimism. My firsthand historical account and analysis and reflections will give readers greater insight into the end of the cold war and the political, military and scientific machinations taking place in the background.

During the 1980’s, the SDI transformed from Ronald Reagan’s ideologically based and non technical hunch into a giant U.S. program that alienated much of the U.S. scientific community and at the same time confused and confounded the Soviet Union. The technological basis behind the SDI program was flawed and fraught with failures, but in many ways, the program was a success. Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev feared the SDI even though key Soviet scientists, including Evgeny Velikhov and Roald Sagdeev, assured him that the U.S. did not have a credible effort. Years later, Sadeev would remark, “If Americans oversold SDI, we Russians over bought it.” In my role as SDI chief scientist, I played an important—and sometimes reluctant—role in creating the illusion that would contribute to the evil empire’s ultimate demise. Despite the SDI programs many flaws, the Soviets took it very seriously, and many political analysts believe that the Star Wars project and the Soviet efforts to keep up with it contributed significantly to the bankruptcy and collapse of the Soviet bloc.

My book also includes the largely untold story of the ill-fated attempt of the Soviets to deploy their own “death star” that was planned to counter the SDI. I describe Gorbachev’s attempt to derail the “SDI-ski” and the role of the Soviet military industrial complex, lead by Oleg Baklanov, who eventually contributed to the coup that overthrew Gorbachev. I explain how my decades of experience working with Soviet scientists gave me a unique insight into their economic failures, culture, and world view.

My years working with the SDI were characterized by chaos and confusion… politics and public relations… delusions and deceptions. I experienced the obvious contradictions involved in being a key technical person in the Star Wars program when I knew that the technical and scientific foundation behind the SDI was incredibly weak. The tragedy of my story is Reagan’s inability at Reykavik to take advantage of the U.S. strengths over the Soviet Union to realize his dream of making nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete. What happened in the 80s has many implications for the future. Although the events described in this book took place over 30 years ago, they remain relevant today as we read about North Korea’s ICBM test, Israel’s Iron Dome ballistic missile defense and our tests of intermediate range THAAD missile defense. My experiences working with death rays and delusions as Reagan’s SDI guy were often ironic and sometimes ridiculous and they provide a unique perspective on what really happens when science and politics interact.