Ronald Reagan Visits the North American Aerospace Defense Command

CAPTAIN RON NASMAN: Right now, all we can do is provide warning.

We have no capability to shoot down any strategic missiles coming into North America.

JEFFREY KAYE: That same message reportedly resonated with Ronald Reagan in 1979, when as a Presidential candidate, he visited NORAD. Four years later, from the White House, President Reagan announced an ambitious project.

PRESIDENT REAGAN: What if free people could live secure in the knowledge that we could intercept and destroy strategic ballistic missiles before they reached our own soil or that of our allies?