U.S. Missile Defenses Keep North Korea on Good Behavior

October 26, 2017

The Heritage Foundation:

Imagine a world in which North Korea can launch a nuclear-armed ballistic missile at the U.S., and we have absolutely no missile defense.

We would be living in that world today if President George W. Bush had not withdrawn the U.S. from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty, which had barred us from deploying a comprehensive missile-defense system.

The U.S. withdrawal was unpopular with the arms control crowd, who attributed almost magical peacekeeping properties to the pact — despite Moscow’s blatant violations of its terms. But Mr. Bush had no interest in perpetuating U.S. vulnerability to ballistic missiles attack.

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