LaRouche in 1983: 'Beam the Bomb!'

Many myths and conflicting narratives have been circulated regarding the actual nature of President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). On April 13, 1983, Lyndon LaRouche delivered this historic speech to a Washington, DC conference ("Directed Energy Beam Weapons Technology") less than a month after Reagan had announced the SDI policy to a nationwide TV audience. LaRouche, who had played a unique in drafting the SDI policy inside the Reagan Administration, designed the policy to not only overthrow the insane MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) doctrine, but also, and much less known, to create a technological revolution which could be employed for global economic development. This included his remarkable proposal that Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, representative of "101 nations on this planet," broker peace arrangements between the US and the USSR based on a joint mission to develop the Non-Aligned Global South.

Within a year of this speech, a 'Get LaRouche' task force was initiated which would ultimately railroad LaRouche into prison in 1989. Six months after that, Indira Gandhi was assassinated.

For a digital archive of Lyndon LaRouche's writings, videos and photos, visit https://larouchelibrary.org/