\ -21- \ was able to "absorb"; that is, there were casualties and damage but no serious impairment of the vital services on which depended the city's life and its ability to serve the war effort. It is precisely this ability to absorb punishment, whether one is speaking of a warship or a city, which seems to vanish in the face of atomic attack. For almost amy kind of target selected, the so-called "static defenses" are defenses no longer. For the same reason too, mere reduction in the number of missiles which strike home is not sufficient to save the target, though it may have some” effect on. the enemy's selection of targets, The defense of London against V-1 was considered effective, and yet in eighty days some 2,300 of those missiles hit the city. The record bag was that of August 28, 194), when out of 101 bombs which approached England 97 were shot down and only four reached London, But if those four had been atomic bombs, London survivors would not have considered the record good, Refore we can speak of a defense against atomic bombs being effec~ tive, the frustration of the attack for any given target area must be complete. Neither military history nor an analysis of present trends jin military technology leaves appreciable room for hope that means of completely frustrating attack by aerial missiles will be developed. In his speech before the Washington HiomunetitieonOctober 5, 195, Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz correctly cautioned the American people against leap-— ing to the conclusion that the atomic bomb had made armies and navies obsolete. But he could have based his cautionary note on better grounds than he in fact adopted. "Before risking our future by accepting these ideas at face value," he said, "let us examine the historical truth that, at least up to this time, there has never yet been a weapon against which man has been unable to devise a counterweapon or a defense. 6. For the text of the speech see the New York Times, October 6, 1945, p. 6. See also the speech of President Truman before Congress on October 23, 1915, in which he said: "Every new weapon will eventually bring some counter-—defense against it." se