Beam Weapons describes the roots of Ronald Reagan's 'Star Wars' quest for a strategic defense system to intercept and destroy nuclear ballistic missiles before they could reach their targets. The goal was to develop radically new beam weapons that destroyed nuclear missiles with directed energy - laser beams or charged particles. The daring program was born at a time of intense technological optimism, when NASA talked of weekly space shuttle flights. Pentagon planners envisioned a fleet of orbiting laser battle stations that could blast thousands of nuclear missiles out of the sky. Critics...