ABSTRACT
In the nineteenth century, Western society entered one of the greatest transitions in the history of mankind. The difficulties that we experience in creating a militarily effective defense posture in the West thus arise not from any moral deficiency in our societies but from precisely those characteristics in them that we wish to defend and that our adversaries would wish to eliminate. The support of organized labor is the more important in the light of a problem which is particularly severe in Britain but which might in the event of a prolonged economic recession become more widespread. The Soviet leadership is no more prone than we are ourselves to accept that the military preparations of its neighbors are purely defensive, and to refrain from responding in kind. Most important of all, it has to be pointed out that wars in Europe have very rarely begun with a settled intention of conquest on the part of the aggressor.
