Kendra S. Horn: “when John F. Kennedy committed our Nation to sending a man to the moon by the end of the 1960s, he was not ambiguous and…”

“when John F. Kennedy committed our Nation to sending a man to the moon by the end of the 1960s, he was not ambiguous and he did not hedge. He committed this Nation to a hard-to-reach goal with the knowledge that American ingenuity and hard work could get the job done. He was right then and we are right now to set this goal before us. The spread of ballistic missile technology--combined with the spread of chemical, biological, and potentially nuclear technology--to nations openly hostile to the United States and our allies has introduced a new threat and new dimension to American security. The spread of this threatening technology has occurred at a rate faster than was predicted just recently by our intelligence community. This fact requires an immediate response to protect our Nation sooner rather than later. The technology underpinning a national missile defense system is unproven today. Much work remains to be done before a working system can be deployed. However, unless we treat this threat and our response seriously and proceed with a firm commitment to deployment, we will leave ourselves vulnerable to our most dangerous and unpredictable enemies. Protection from this threat must be treated with the highest degree of seriousness. National missile defense must be undertaken in conjunction with other defense needs.”