Letters:

Taiwan needs Kidds

In response to "Pass on the Kidds" (Letters, May 24, page 8), the writer makes some solid assessments of Taiwan's defensive needs, but then fails to see that the longer term security mission of Taiwan's navy will not be limited in its geographical scope. The future mission role of the fleet of Kidd Class destroyers will be operational within the deep blue Pacific Ocean, not just the Taiwan Strait.

This naval projection into the Western Pacific places the island of Taiwan in the keystone of a collective security organization linked to other Western Pacific island allies like Australia, the Philippines, and America's "free associa-tion" allies like the Marshall Islands. Past Taiwan navy missions have already successfully demonstrated the capability of an operational radius as far away as Kiribati or the Straits of Malacca.

Obviously Taiwan is on the the western frontline of the opposition to Chinese military attempts at establishing a first chain of islands to be equipped with anti-ship missiles. As the Chinese have continued to widen the establishment of their military footholds in places like Kiribati and Tonga, the looming security threat to international commercial shipping is increasing exponentially.

Thus it can be anticipated that these increasing pressures will force an overt American military response. These Chinese aggressions do certainly foster the resurrection of the Cold War policy of "strategic denial." Strategic denial was originally formulated by the US Department of Defense in the early 1980s to specifically displace Russian military activities then occurring in places like Tonga. The purpose is to absolutely deny the adversary from establishing any island strongholds in the Pacific. For Taiwan, it is like the Monroe Doctrine. The security threat from China against the entire range of American interests in the Western Pacific is pushing the imposition of a new security paradigm with Taiwan at its center. Thus the future acquisition of Kidd destroyers by Taiwan is the key to a necessary strategic clarification of the Taiwan Relations Act requirements for defending Taiwan within a US security model.

America's multilateral security guarantees underwrote the historical peace in Europe for more than 50 years, but those allies had to do their fair share of the work, too. Procurement of the Kidd destroyers is in the longer term interests of Taiwan and the US, but certainly not China.

Jeff Geer

Las Vegas, Nevada