DEFENSE: Determined Ally

The free world's best military news last week registered most plainly in the outraged headlines of Rome's Communist daily L'Unità: ALARMING AMERICAN REVELATIONS OF AGREEMENT FOR MISSILES IN ITALY. The Red worry was well founded. Italy, after long debate, had decided to install two squadrons of U.S. intermediate-range (1,500 miles) ballistic missiles. The news from Rome put fresh mettle into NATO, greater depth and power into the West's entire defense structure.

Simple geography (see map) explained it. During the early '60s, when Russia may hold a temporary lead in numbers of intercontinental...

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