ABSTRACT
Strategic defense offers more and less than a defended world. Americans are coming to accept what has been called a "conventionalization" of war. Presentation of strategic defenses is a way of changing the strategic rules of the game. If the postwar pragmatists are to reassert their strategic doctrine, they must embrace changes in American world view. The original presentation of nuclear deterrence was made within the basic framework of the national belief system. The mechanism of deterrence seems to have become indissolubly linked to its failure. Former responses to Soviet military programs on both the strategic and theater levels seemed insufficient. Americans are coming to accept what has been called a "conventionalization" of war. A convergence of external pressures, national failure, and acute diplomatic disappointment destroyed a postwar suspension of disbelief. The Strategic Defense Initiative is such a child.
