The second Trump Administration is promoting a “Golden Dome” to be placed over the country to prevent hostile missiles and/or bombers from attacking us. Theoretically, this is an attractive technology, but a technology that may be suited for small countries, like Israel.
Whether it fits the 3,000 miles of America, however, should be at least investigated as nuclear missile technology proliferates, and even tiny countries, like North Korea, can threaten Los Angeles. Not to mention the advances made in this area by Russia and, particularly, China.
I am not a technologist, but one expert with years of experience in the field assures us that “we have all the tools for America’s Golden Dome. We can start deploying the first elements tomorrow. Congress needs to act.” But I am a historian and, as such, have an obligation to remind readers that in world politics, nobody is perfectly “safe.” There are always ways of going over, around, and under defensive technology.
In fact, relying on technology for safety can lead to disaster. After World War I, when France was occupied for four years by the German Army, they were determined never to let it happen again. In 1930, France began the “Maginot Line” (named after their Minister of War), which nearly guaranteed safety for the 40 million French population.
The Line was based on the experience of 1914 that any war would be long and costly, and that a defensive perimeter would suffice to hold out until France and the allied countries could mount an offensive. Included in the expanse, which became the model for the whole world, were 142 concrete forts, 352 casements, 5,000 blockhouses, 150,000 tons of steel, 1.5 million cubic meters of concrete, hundreds of tunnels and rail guns, 78 hilltop fire decks, and walls 12 to 16 feet deep. The entire project cost 3.3 billion dollars (today’s value) and was finished by 1939.
Unfortunately, Hitler had no intention to test such a monstrosity and sent his “Blitzkrieg” forces around and over the Wall, principally through the Ardennes Forest. A rapid advance through the forest and across the river Meuse encircled both the French and British armies, forcing the historic evacuation at Dunkirk and leaving the remaining French Army in the south vulnerable and soon surrounded. Hitler’s Army was ably assisted from the air, as the “Luftwaffe” pounded the French Army to the ground.
British Historian Alistair Horne summarized the final effects of the Maginot Line on France: “Rapidly, the Maginot Line came to be not just a component of strategy but a way of life. Feeling secure behind it … the French Army allowed itself to atrophy into disuse. A massive combination of factors – complacency, lassitude, deficiencies of manpower and finance conspired to rust the superb weapon which the world had so admired.” France surrendered to Germany after six weeks (June 22, 1940).
Historically, Americans have discovered unity only after foreign attack, and Pearl Harbor symbolizes this. The Golden Dome will not provide political unity but it could bolster “Deterrence” as the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) did in the Reagan Administration. SDI was never accomplished, but it helped collapse both the Cold War and the Soviet Union together. According to Cold War historian Derek Leebaert, SDI would “remain forever scattered between symbol, deception and real power … by and large Moscow was fooled … SDI was an inspired step in the war of attrition, whether or not Moscow tried to match it.” (The Fifty Year Wound, 2002).
Jack Tierney is a Professor of International Relations at the Institute of World Politics. He was also a Former Special Assistant and Foreign Affairs Officer, U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (1981-1993), and the former Executive Director of the Congressional Caucus on National Defense and the National Security Research Group.
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