remember, john kennedy, whom i generally admired, ran against richard nixon on the grounds that the republicans hadn't spent enough on defense, there had been a missile gap, and for years, i have been involved in this, democratic candidates for president were told, your one vulnerability is if you're weak on defense. that's why a really superb public serviceant michael dukakis made the mistake of being in the tank, he was a veteran, had a right to do it, but it didn't look good. i think what has happened is this, rachel. for 60 years, the american public was focused on -- 50 years, from 1940 to 1990, there were very bad people who were heavily armed, first hitler and then stalin and his successors, and they meant ulill. i believe we did not see an evolution in the soviet union early enough and we overprepared for it, but there was this fear that we were going to be attacked by somebody powerful.

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