ABSTRACT
National security lay in preventing the first “domino” from toppling, almost regardless of the military, economic, and moral costs. All nations, and all peoples, seek security; that is, they seek to insure the integrity of their territory and possessions, and their freedom to pursue their own destiny in their own chosen way. In their attempts to achieve security nations have armed, have threatened war, and have conducted wars. Security and the measures taken to insure it are matters of perception. Present United States (US) concepts of national security depend fundamentally upon perceptions of the Soviet Union, its characteristics and motivations. In some of the countries, including the US, enactment of social security programmes was preceded by many years of debate. In the service of a particular misguided concept of national security, the US paid a terrible price in terms of ethics and ideals set aside, high values compromised, and innocence lost.
