title: Missile defenses and strategic nuclear arms control: technology and policy challenges
abstract: Background When the idea of a “missile defense” was initially proposed in the United States by the Cook Board (1945), the idea was well ahead of its time.1 As the Cold War took shape and the United States and Soviet Union developed intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) and then, by 1958, intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), American political leaders came to see ballistic missile defense as critical to the nation’s security. In fact, in 1958 NSC 5802 called for making an anti-ICB