The eight-year drive for a 600-ship fleet has sunk under budget reductions. Since Lehman's departure, the tide has turned against the Navy. Moreover, physical controls on naval nuclear weapons are less rigorous because they are viewed as less threatening to civilian populations and land masses than land-based weapons.Īgainst this backdrop of risk, the "maritime strategy" pursued during Lehman's tenure was so swashbuckling in its peacetime operations and so offensive in its wartime goals as to alienate - and alarm - defense watchers, congressional specialists and foreign governments.
Naval strategies for crisis or wartime also tend to promote rapid escalation. Because naval forces are regularly employed for political signaling, the opportunities for miscalculation of intent are numerous. Naval strategy in the nuclear age carries its own special dangers.
The aggressive military strategy that Lehman championed has markedly increased not only the opportunity for provocative encounters on the high seas but also the risk that such encounters will escalate into nuclear warfare.
JOHN LEHMAN'S six-year reign as secretary of the Navy left a legacy far more dangerous than the tainted procurement apparatus that has been making headlines in recent weeks.
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