Reagan’s point was that the Cold Was a moral war and that America had a moral duty to invest in new nuclear
weapons in order to defend liberty from the ‘evil’ Soviet Union.
Soviet Response
Soviet leaders knew that they could not compete with Reagan’s ‘Star Wars’ plan.
Reagan’s proposals meant that the USSR could no longer compete in the arms race.
The USSR was behind America in terms of its computer technology. Soviet leaders were concerned
they might be used to undermine the power of the Communist Party. Computers could be used for
propaganda, or computers linked to phones could be used to leak secrets to governments in the West.