Since the beginning of the Cold War, American society and culture have been affected by the desire to defend the nation against nuclear holocaust. Billions of dollars have been spent on researching, developing, and deploying a defense against missile attacks from the former Soviet Union and more recently from smaller states that have developed nuclear weapons.

The term Star Wars, coined by opponents of President Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), came to be widely used to describe the system of space-based weapons intended to protect the United States from intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM).

The United States first began missile defense research during World War II in response to Germany's rocket program, which included plans for ICBMs. One of the earliest proponents of missile defense was Edward Teller, who authored a report on the feasibility of defensive capabilities against atomic weapons for the U.S. Navy...