In his Star Wars speech, the President asked for the means to render nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete, a promise, he said, for "changing the course of human history."

Then in that tube of vacuum was waged a spectacular duel of ultra-weapons - weapons impotent in air, but deadly in empty space.

Such a system would be a far cry from Mr. Reagan's vision of making nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete.

The Strategic Defence Initative Organisation, which over the past decade has spent some $10 billion in answer to Ronald Reagan's call for a defence that would make nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete, is no more.

Star Wars' and a Breakthrough On March 23, 1983, Mr. Reagan announced plans for a system of exotic, space-based defenses that would make nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete.

He added that President Reagan's "vision of a leakproof shield that makes nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete is not a practical reality.

With that weapon impotent they cannot possibly win a long war waged so far from their bases.

In the cold, dim light of a dark Sollen day those two lumpy bundles of stones seemed pitifully small, an impotent weapon to raise against such a fierce and relentless foe.

The purpose was to discuss a nationally televised speech President Ronald Reagan had given the night before, in which he had challenged American scientists to create "the means of rendering these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete."

The four aunts sat wide-eyed and pale, rosaries lying like impotent weapons in their laps, not yet understanding their reprieve from the Martian invasion.