View source for Strategic Air Command

=== The Reagan Era ===
In 1981, [[Ronald Reagan]] became President of the United States. He challenged the notion of mutual assured destruction, and also held that American industry and military planners could out-develop the Soviets in strategic weapons if they really tried. His tenure in office saw the development of one new major missile system (the [[LGM-118A Peacekeeper]] or "MX") and two new long-range bombers:
#The [[B-1 Lancer]], and specifically the B model based on the earlier B-1A model that Reagan's predecessor [[Jimmy Carter]] canceled.
#The [[B-2 Spirit]], a flying-wing bomber with an ultra-low profile rendering it nearly invisible to radar.

President Reagan also announced plans to develop a radical new anti-missile technology, that would be space-based instead of ground-based. This started a controversy as to whether such a technology would be in violation of the 1972 ABM Treaty. That controversy remains unsettled to this day.

Reagan's successor, [[George H. W. Bush]], essentially continued his policies. The second year of President Bush's term saw three key geopolitical events:
# The fall of the [[Berlin Wall]] in 1990.
# The dissolution of the [[Warsaw Pact]]
# The dissolution of the Soviet Union into its component "republics," which each now exist as a separate nation-state.