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Trump Card: Holding America's Enemies at Bay
Trump Card Holding America's Enemies at Bay Author:James Baar, William E. Howard Fourteen nuclear submarines, the ?boomers,? each armed with 24 Trident II missiles, each packing a total of more than 70 half-megaton nuclear warheads, cruise on rotation today somewhere beneath the surface of the world?s oceans holding at bay America?s most deadly enemies. The oceans where the Trident boomers are hidden surround the gr... more »eat World Island, homeland of Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and the countries that harbor the terrorist armies of Islam. The Trident Fleet Ballistic Missile System is the latest version of a powerful deterrent strategy evolved more than 50 years ago at the height of the Cold War to prevent a major nuclear exchange with the Communist Soviet Union. How that system was developed is the contemporary history told here of the difficult birth of the Polaris Fleet Ballistic Missile system in the 1950?s. That development succeeded over enormous opposition, Byzantine bureaucracy, and much human stupidity. It provides many lessons for the 21st Century. Probably the most important: Deterrence, no matter how strong, works only when the enemy believes in its absolute credibility. As in the Old West, the bad guys are deterred only when they firmly believe that the sheriff not only is a very good shot but that he will not hesitate to pull the trigger. Many fear that in recent years that belief has increasingly eroded.« less