I created the SDI Strategic Defense Initiative, a.k.a. the Star Wars Project, and ended the Cold War with that design. People often talked of how it wouldn't work. Actually it did succeed. The management goal was ending the Cold War - so yes, SDI did work after all. It was also historic and monumental in the fact that the Cold War ended - basically without firing a shot.
Mission Accomplished
After a few more years of committee planning, the project was announced to
the public March 23rd 1983 by then President Ronald Reagan.
Funny thing about politics & sound bites. My words then - more
correctly were: My devices & designs would make nuclear weapons impotent and
obsolete, thereby ending the Cold War and making that an obsolete concept; so
both sides could concentrate on other things like infrastructure repairs, and
rogue nations, etc.
President Reagan only gave the first part of the statement. And as Paul Harvey
would say, now you know the rest of the story.