The U.S. Military Made a Big Mistake When It Came to Russia's Cold War Navy (And Might Repeat It with China)
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It seems history could very well rhyme after all.
Michael Peck [2]
Back in the 1980s, a war with the Soviet Union seemed like a naval nightmare.
Fiction writers like Tom Clancy and John Hackett [3] painted a future where Western navies faced hordes of Red bombers, cruise missiles, submarines and surface warships. Naturally, in these novels the Good Guys won, but only at tremendous cost.
In hindsight, some of this looks silly. We know now—and some suspected back then—that the Soviet Navy was undercut by major deficiencies in technology and training. It was no paper tiger, but neither was it some aquatic beast that would have devoured Western fleets.
Are we now making the same mistake with China? When we read reports of a vast expansion in China’s navy, or of alleged Chinese superweapons like carrier-killer ballistic missiles, are we exaggerating the threat?
Source URL (retrieved on January 18, 2017):
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-us-military-made-big-mistake-when-it-came-russias-cold-19058
