Arms Limitation Treaties and Reduced Tensions with the Soviet Union

question 71

Multiple Choice

Arms limitation treaties and reduced tensions with the Soviet Union in the 1970s gave way to increased tensions and confrontations in the early 1980s. President Reagan outlined a new initiative called the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) . What was the basic goal of SDI?

• A) The United States, it was later determined, intended to launch preemptive attacks on the Soviet Union from outer space using SDI.
• B) The SDI would take the realm of war into space versus the earth's surface, thus future war would destroy only equipment and not lives.
• C) There would be an antimissile system based on the use of lasers and particle beams to shoot down Soviet nuclear missiles in outer space.
• D) The SDI was to be a military base on the moon that could launch stealth responses to threats on earth.
• E) There would be no need for infantry units, as military actions would be fought from vast distances using virtual technologies.

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Definitions:

Industrialization

The development of industries in a country or region on a wide scale, transforming economies from primarily agricultural to manufacturing and production-based.

Overpopulation

A condition where an area's population exceeds its environmental carrying capacity, leading to environmental degradation and diminished quality of life.

Bourgeoisie

The social class that owns the means of production in a capitalist society, typically contrasted with the working class or proletariat.

Capitalism

An economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of capital goods, by investments determined by private decision, and by prices, production, and the distribution of goods determined mainly by competition in a free market.