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299 Annals Am. Acad. Pol. & Soc. Sci. vii (1955)

handle is hein.cow/anamacp0299 and id is 1 raw text is: FOREWORD Inevitably, in an atomic age, nuclear air power must be the sword and shield of freedom. By the same token, no aggressor can hope to conquer free society with- out a well-rounded atomic air capability as his primary strength. Nuclear air power thus has become the most portentous single fact of modern life, pregnant with evil and good. Without American air power, postwar Europe might have fallen an easy prey to Communism. Without this same power it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to forge the system of alliances uniting most of the world's peaceful and democratic nations. Atomic air power has given the free world a true and trusted defense. But even more significant: Long-range air power has put an end to geographic inaccessibility. The remote bases needed to prepare, secretly, for destructive sur- prise attacks no longer are inviolate against retaliation. Henceforth the heartland is nearly as exposed as the periphery. With the express purpose of keeping a new military holocaust at bay, the American nuclear force for years has been pointed at the very core of incipient aggression. The free world's plan is to continue to employ American and British nuclear superiority as the chief deterrent to cata- clysmic folly. Whether nuclear air power will succeed in giving the world what it never pos- sessed before, an effective tool for the prevention of war, depends on the presump- tive aggressor's rationality. If he thinks reasonably, he will realize that he can- not defeat the United States except through a dislocating and disruptive nuclear attack and that he has little chance of forestalling even more devastating counter- blows. However costly an atomic war would be to the free world and the United States, it would also spell disaster for Communism. Aviation is far broader than air power. Just as military aeronautics could de- stroy the fruits of a million years of human effort, civil aeronautics might join a fractured world into a more co-operative society. The ability to fly for purposes of commerce, travel, recreation, research, health, and production is one of man- kind's greatest current values. Once fully developed-and we are very far from aerotechnical maturity-aviation may modify profoundly our present urban struc- ture and thus reduce our vulnerability to atomic weapons. As a commercial en- deavor of many facets it is contributing to the transformation which society is presently undergoing. Air transport is helping in the development of backward areas. It has allowed a dramatic intensification of trade and travel and thus an ever wider distribution of hard currency throughout the world. As a result, it holds promise of making economic protectionism increasingly difficult. Psycho- logically, aviation is putting an end to national isolation and self-centeredness. Aeronautics, a tool of peace as well as of warfare, is thus one of the most creative forces of modern civilization. Thus far scholars have given only limited attention to the problems of modern aviation. The failure of political scientists to deal more directly with the changes wrought in political relationships by the development of flying poses grave ques- tions. Could it be that we are paying a penalty for leaving the life and death problems confronting modern statecraft in the hands of men who are not governed by judgment acquired through the scientific method? Could it be that the politi- vii

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