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The Soviets have a vigorous ABM research program of their own, including work on technologies like laser beams. Their radar at Krasnoyarsk could very well turn out to be part of an ABM network. They are poised on the starting line — and perhaps ready to jump the gun — if the U.S. seems committed to a space race.
That is just what worries many critics of Star Wars: the quest for an impenetrable defense will provoke the Soviets into adding offensive weapons while at the same time trying to develop extensive defenses of their own.
Thus the arms race and the attempt to regulate it are at a turning point. In 1985 either the superpowers will continue to observe SALT as they negotiate toward something better, or the combination of military pressures and political ill feeling will bring the already shaky arms-control edifice crashing down. The choice could be between a continuation of interim restraints and a massive case of breakout on both sides.
— By Strobe Talbott