faced a similar danger before. TliernJapanese strategists who planned thernPearl Harbor attack were aware that theirrneconomy had only one-tenth the war potentialrnof the American one. Nevertheless,rnby concentrating their resources onrnthe military, they had attained regionalrnsuperiority and sought to convert that advantagerninto geopolitical gains by a preemptivernstrike against an unpreparedrnAmerica.rnThe Reagan strategy’, based on Sovietrnweakness rather than Soviet strength,rnwas not developed from a false assumption.rnA Defense Department assessmentrnput Soviet computer technology tenrnyears behind that of the United States.rnBy exploiting America’s high-tech advantagernacross the military spectrum,rnfrom precision-guided munitions to antimissilerndefense, the United States couldrndash any Soviet hope for military success,rnenforce the policy of containment,rnand bring the internal contradichons ofrnthe Soviet system to a boil. All this wasrnfar more in keeping with Kennan’s actualrnstrategy than it is with Moynihan’s interpretationrnof it. It was because the SovietrnUnion was “by far the weaker part)'”rnthat Kennan advised the United Statesrn”to increase enormously the strains underrnwhich the Soviet policy must operate”rnby “the adroit and vigilant applicationrnof counter-force.”rnMoynihan complains that, whilern”The missile gap turned out not to exist,rn[nevertheless! nearly four decades laterrnthe United States is still conteniplahngrnmodes of missile defense.” Yet the missilerngap was real when Reagan initiatedrnthe Strategic Defense Initiative, andrneven without a “gap” the fact that hostilernpowers can obliterate large parts ofrnAmerica is cause enough to develop defensesrnagainst such attacks. The merernfact that seeral of the countries developingrnnuclear-armed missiles hae economiesrna frachon of the size of ours doesrnnot of itself preclude our taking defensivernmeasures. As the Rumsfeld Commissionrnrecend” concluded.rnConcerted efforts by a number ofrnoverdy or potentially hostile nahonsrnto acquire ballistic missilesrnwith biological or nuclear payloadsrnpose a growing threat to the UnitedrnStates, its deployed forces and itsrnfriends and allies.rnInterestingly enough, the RumsfeldrnCommission was an “outside” group ofrnexperts chartered by Congress to do thernvery kind of independent examination ofrnofficial policy that Moynihan’s case forrnreduced secrecy is meant to foster. Therncommission’s finding that “The threat tornthe U.S. posed by these emerging capabilitiesrnis broader, more mature andrnevolving more rapidly than has beenrnreported in estimates and reports by thernIntelligence Community” could haverncome from Moynihan’s own book, hadrnthe senator been of a mind to cite thisrnkind of example. That he wasn’t—forrnthe reason that his political agendarnwoidd not have been advanced therebyrn—tells us, in truth, more about the naturernof liberalism than about the dangersrnofsecrecv.rnTOPICSrnFACULTYrnTUITIONrnINQUIRIESrnThe League of the South Institute for the Studyrnof Southern Culture and HistoryrnPresents its Fourth Annual Summer SchoolrnSeabrook Island, South CarolinarnJune 27-July 2, 1999rnThe Southern Moral and Political Tradition, The Political Philosophy of John C.rnCalhoun, Southern Literature, The Confederate Constitution, Reconstruction, and ThernIdeological Use of “Slavery” in American Liberalism.rnMarshall DeRosa (Florida Atlantic University), Thomas Fleming (editor. Chronicles), JamesrnKibler (University of Ceorgia), Donald Livingston (Emory University), BartTalbert (SalisburyrnState University), Bill Wilson (University of Virginia), Clyde Wilson (University of SouthrnCarolina), Mark Winchell (Clemson University).rn.$495 includes all meals and lodging in a graceful setting of lie oaks and palmettos on thernocean front.rnDr. Michael Hill, President LS Institute, P.O. Box 40910, Tuscaloosa, AL 35404-0910.rnPhone: (205) 553-0155. Fax: (205) 553-2155. E-mail: [email protected]: www.dixienet.org.rn26/CHRONICLESrnrnrn