Barry Bruce-Briggs - The Shield of Faith

BY THE SAMEAUTHOR

Things to Come(with Herman Kahn)
The War Against the Automobile
Canada Hasa Future (with others)
The New Class? (with others)

THESHIELD OF FAITH

ACHRONICLE OF STRATEGIC DEFENSE
FROM ZEPPELINS TO STAR WARS

B.Bruce-Briggs

ATOUCHSTONE BOOK

Publishedby Simon & Schuster Inc. New York London Toronto Sydney Tokyo

Copyright 1988 by B. Bruce-Briggs All rights reserved including the right ofreproduction in whole or in part in any form.

First TouchstoneEdition, 1990

TOUCHSTONE andcolophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster Inc.

Designed byJeanne Joudry

Tothe memory of the soldiers, airmen,
and civilian technicians ofthe United States Army,
the United States Air Force, the NationalGuard,
the Air National Guard, the Royal Canadian Air Force,
andthe Canadian Forces who have died
in the defense of North America,1950 to ?

Contents

PREFACE: INDEFENSE OF THIS BOOK

ITHE DEFENSE DENIED
The Balloon Threat - TheDirigible Threat - The Aeroplane Threat - Dishing the Bomber - TheDefense of America - Passive Defense - Bolstering the German Offense- The Cruise Missile Threat -
The First Ballistic MissileThreat - The Defense of the Reich - The Offense Redeemed - TheNot-So-Absolute Weapon - The Next War in 1945 - The (Peaceful)Nuclear Wars of the 1940s - The Next Bomb - The Problem Stated

IITHE DEFENSE REVIVED

The First AirDefense War - The Defense Rests - CONAD - The Valley Committee -Whirlwind - Project Lincoln - The Quick-Fix Interceptors - The Battleof the Birds - The Defense Takes Shape - Nike - Not Quite CivilDefense - The Northern Glacis - The Strategy of Continental Defense -The Great Shmooz

IIITHE DEFENSE ASCENDANT

The One-ManCommittee - The Shadow of Super - Dwight Eisenhower's StrategicDefense Initiative - The Century Series - Bomarc - Nike-Hercules -Hawk - Civil Defense Creeps Forward - NORAD - SAC Strikes Back - HowMuch Is Enough? The Other Side in the 1950s - The Next War in 1955 -Hitting a Bullet With a Bullet - Nike-Zeus - The War of the Brass -Defending the Deterrent - Nonmilitary Defense - Fallout Shelters -The Strategy of Civil Defense - Defending the Missiles - Defendingthe Defense - The Gaither Committee

IVTHE DEFENSE STRAINED

The Missile Wars- The Defeat of CONAD - Debacle in the North - Minor Disasters - TheVanquished - The Blocking of Nike-Zeus - Kwajalein - Civil DefenseFinally Rises - The Democratic Offensive - McNamara Shoots Down theAir Force - The McNamara Defense - The Defenders Branch Out -Nike-Zeus Fights On - John Kennedy's Strategic Defense Initiative -The Balloon Goes Up - The Stalling of Civil Defense - The Defenders'Kaffeeklatsch - The Defenders Dig In - The Ann Arbor Speech - TheLast Crisis - ARADCOM Opens a Southern Front - The Canadian MissileCrisis

VTHE DEFENSE STALEMATED

Arms Control -The Arms Controllers - ACDA - The Problem in Europe - FiniteDeterrence - Mutual Deterrence - The Rise of the Kooks - The KooksTake On Civil Defense - The Test Ban - 206Nice Nuclear Weapons - TheLast Fight of Nike-Zeus - ABM on the Other Side - Project Defender -Nike-X - CD: RIP - Assured Destruction - Damage-Limiting - The NextWar in 1965 - The Army Gets Reinforcements - The Thin System - TheNth Power - Defending the Deterrent Redux - Fireworks at Kwaj -Passive vsActive Defense - Defense Is Offensive - The Budget BleedingGround - Cambridge's Last Defense - The Bleeding of NORAD - TheDefense That Never Was - Nike-X Reaches Adolescence - The Conundrumof Arms Control - The Other Side Goes First - Arms Control ThroughDefense - McNamara's Last Defense - Robert McNamara's StrategicDefense Initiative - The Building of ABM

VITHE DEFENSE DEFEATED

Anti-ABM -Richard Nixon's Strategic Defense Initiative - The War Against ABM -The Defense of MIT - The Defenders Organize Themselves - The SoiledVictory of ABM - The Other Side Falters - ABM Goes Forward - TheConduct of the Allies - The Reconstitution of the Think Tanks - ABMStaggers On - SALT - The Twilight of ABM - ABM's Last Stand - TheDefeat of NORAD - The Academic Strategy - The Next War in 1975 - TheDefeated - The Next Generation - The BMD Underground - TheSurvivalists.

VIITHE DEFENSE COUNTERATTACKS

Defending theDeterrent Without ABM - Building the Next Offense - A NewIntelligence - The Ideology of Defense - The Morality of Defense -The Real Action - The Other Side in the 1970s - The Disarmers in the1970s - The Empire Strikes Back - The Problem in Europe Revived -Jimmy Carter's Strategic Defense Initiative - The Shell Game - TheBattle of the Great Basin - The Weapons Labs Stir - The Space Cult -The Return of the Jedi - The Dismemberment of Ma Bell - The ReaganStrategy - JUSCADS - Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Debacle -Fratricide - The Threat from America - The Freeze - The Bishops Crack- Building the Political Defense.

EPILOGUE THE DEFENSE DISCOMBOBULATED

METHOD ANDSOURCES
INDEX

Put on thewhole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wilesof the devil.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, butagainst principalities, against powers, against the rulers of thedarkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in highplaces.
Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that yemay be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, tostand.
Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth,and having on the breastplate of righteousness;
And your feet shodwith the preparation of the gospel of peace;
Above all, taking theshield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fierydarts of the wicked.
Saint Paul to the Ephesians

Ephesus was ... the great port to which flowed the commerce of East and West. Itsinhabitants were equally noted for licentious and luxurious life, andfor cultivation of magical arts...
Concordance toProtestant Episcopal Sunday School Teachers' Bible, circa 1900

PREFACE
INDEFENSE OF THIS BOOK

"Defense isthe stronger form of war," wrote Major General Carl vonClausewitz. Yet like most other military theorists and practitioners,he emphasized the offense. Defense is the weaker form of militarydiscourse. When the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces of theNorth American republic advised his nation in 1983 that he intendedto direct his soldiers and civilian agents to examine the technicalpossibilities of defending the homeland from thermonuclear attack,his initiative was acclaimed as a revelation, or abhorred as anabominable innovation.

In fact, nothingsaid in Ronald Reagan's "Star Wars" speech had not beensaid long beforebut strategic defense had been buried frompublic view in a deep shelter. The dominance of the offense incontemporary thinking is reflected in books about the nuclear age:almost without exception, they denigrate or disregard the defense.Most of the authors accept the premise of what this writer calls "theacademic strategy," thatin the language of the incisivehistory 1066 and All Thatdefense is A Bad Thing. Thisbook understands, and seeks to inform the decent reader, that defenseis A Good Thingbut, alas, good things are not necessarily goodenough and are not always easy to gain.

Most publicwriters on nuclear matters are indifferent to and/or ignorant of whatis and is not easy, and how easy. Almost all writings emphasizepolitical squabbles within and between institutions. These vulgar andnasty quarrels cannot be ignored by any plausible account of thedefenders of the nation, but it is shallow and cynical to maintainthat grubbing for power and money is all that has driven policy. Afew people do have principles, some have ideas, and many havecompetence. To be sure, much history of the Americannational-security apparatus