The Finletter Report: Survival in the Air Age

Abstract

We believe that the United States will be secure in an absolute sense only if the institution of war itself is abolished under a regime of law. There was a time when the United States could tolerate with safety a world in which war was the final way of settling disputes among nations. For even if war came the United States could be reasonably sure not only of winning it but even of keeping enemy forces away from its shores. Our geographical position, our Navy, our industrial capacity, our manpower, and the armies, navies, and air forces of nations allied or associated with us, protected us against direct attack in the two World Wars through which we have just passed. But, with the recent revolution in applied science for destruction which is still going on, these safeguards are no longer enough.