istration. In late summer of 1981, the administration
was successful in having moderate conservative San-
dra Day O’Connor appointed to the Court, making
her the first female associate justice. In 1986, Reagan
also managed to install conservative Antonin Scalia
as an associate justice and William H. Rehnquist as
chief justice, replacing Warren E. Burger. In 1987,
however, Senate opposition to conservative nomi-
nee Robert H. Bork killed his nomination, resulting
in the appointment of the much more moderate An-
thony Kennedy.
On October 2, 1981, with higher levels of funding
in place, Reagan announced his program for devel-
oping a new generation of strategic weapons, his first
step toward challenging the So-
viet threat. On November 18, he
outlined his ideas for nuclear
arms reduction to the National
Press Club, and on May 31, 1982,
he announced U.S.-Soviet Strate-
gic Arms Reduction Talks, which
would ultimately result in the first
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty
(START). Rather than seeking to
limit the growth of nuclear arse-
nals, as previous negotiators had
tried to do, Reagan laid the foun-
dation for eliminating the threat
of nuclear weapons altogether. In
June, Reagan traveled to Europe
for a meeting of the G7 (the
group of seven economic powers)
and became the first U.S. presi-
dent to address the full British
parliament. On June 17, he pre-
sented his “Agenda for Peace”
speech to the U.N. Special Ses-
sion on Disarmament.
Reagan, however, wanted to
deal from a position of military
strength, and he continued Amer-
ica’s buildup and challenge to the
Soviets, especially after the death
of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev
and the rise of Yuri Andropov in
November. On March 8, 1983, in a
speech to the National Associa-
tion of Evangelicals, Reagan fa-
mously labeled the Soviet Union
the “Evil Empire,” a calculated if
antagonistic move that appalled many liberals but
confirmed Reagan’s conviction about the nature
of the United States’ greatest enemy. He followed
this on March 23 with a national address on the mis-
sile threats to U.S. security and his new antiballistic
missile Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). Quickly
and derisively nicknamed “Star Wars,” this earth-
and space-based system would supposedly shield the
United States from foreign nuclear warheads. Cau-
tious negotiation and continued buildup seemed
warranted, as the Soviets downed a Korean airliner
for violating Soviet airspace on September 1, 1983,
and Konstantin Chernenko replaced Andropov the
following February.The Eighties in America Reagan, Ronald 803
President Ronald Reagan.(Library of Congress)