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Intensive preparation for a showdown in 1953 requires, besides the arming of Europe, two other efforts:
1) Holding the line against Communism in Asia, and pressing it back wherever opportunity offers or can be created.
2) Looking to the atomic defense of the continental U.S. This country can never be made safe from atomic attack: no major bombardment against land targets—especially a multiplicity of targets—has ever been completely stopped. However, the effectiveness of an enemy atomic attack can be somewhat reduced. Yet on such matters as radar warning screens and civilian defense and fighter defenses to cope with an atomic raid, the U.S. and Canada have done almost nothing.
There are still some Americans who believe that any preparations for defense will provoke Russia. They may be right. Nobody can predict with certainty how the Kremlin will react. Men, however, rarely have a chance to act on certainties. They deal in probabilities. The probability is that the Russians will be more likely to attack if the U.S. and its Allies remain in or near their present indefensible condition.