Historical Precedents for Missile Defense

James Pinkerton’s May 10 commentary on a national missile defense illustrates the absurdity of misusing history to score points in the glib game of political punditry. He cites Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy as Democratic presidents who fostered new technologies, at sea and in the air, so that “the U.S. won the three world wars of the last century.” History, he concludes, proves that Democrats should support Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s strategy for the future war to control space.

History proves no such thing. First, the U.S. did not win those wars; large alliances did, in close collaboration. Second, while water and air were important mediums, land was decisive, even in the Cold War, when NATO armies secured terrain and acted as a “trip wire” that the Warsaw Pact was afraid to activate. Third, technology is a mixed blessing in defense policy, for the zeal of development can drown out political and strategic realities, as Wilson, FDR and Kennedy well knew.

Gaines Post Jr.

Claremont