Strategic Defense Initiative     Edward Teller was a strong advocate for President Ronald Regan's Strategic Defense Initiative. It is also called Star Wars by critics of the initiative. The purpose of the Strategic Defense Initiative was for satellites in space to have lasers on them that could destroy missiles that the Russians may send to destroy the United States. Despite Edward Teller and Ronald Regan's efforts the funding for the project was cut. Many scientists criticized the operation saying that there would be more wars if this system was used, because wars would be easier to win.     During this time Teller admitted to the public that he regretted that the first bombs that he helped create were used to bomb cities in Japan that had civilians in them. He then said that he had insisted that the bombs be dropped in a testing environment with the Japanese military and citizens there to see the explosion. He thought that if they saw the destruction that these bombs could do then they would back down. There is evidence that Teller may have been telling a lie. In 1945 he wrote in a letter to Leo Szilard, "'our only hope is getting the facts of our results before the people. This might help convince everybody the next war would be fatal. For this purpose, actual combat-use might even be the best thing.'" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Teller     However, the Strategic defense System was a project that was highly criticized and no action was taken.                                                                           Picture taken from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Teller Home