Letters
Sea powers
Sir: While Nicholas von Hoffman makes several interesting points about the weak- nesses of American's conventional forces (Terrestrial wars', 13 April), he errs when he says 'the only major potential enemy the United States has in the world is a land Power'. Assuming he means the Soviet Union, this statement is quite simply wrong. As well as being a land power, the USSR is also the world's number two sea power, actually outnumbering the US Navy in attack submarines (289 vs 99) and escorts (303 vs 196).
It is the aircraft carrier which gives the US its main advantage over the Soviets, and which will be vital in securing the North Atlantic sea lanes without which US Army reinforcements will be unable to reach Europe in the event of war. Signifi- cantly, the Russians have come to appreci- ate the aircraft carrier's worth, and have begun construction of a large (65,000 ton) carrier to complement their existing fleet of four medium (43,000 ton) carriers.
As Mr von Hoffman says, you do not have to be a graduate of the National War College to express an opinion, but one should perhaps avoid making glib and contentious statements about subjects on which one's ignorance is both obvious and profound.
Kallinicos
St John's College, Cambridge
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