JUST HOURSafter polling stations closed in California on November 5th, a Minuteman III missile thundered out of the Vandenberg military base on the Pacific coast. Half an hour later and 4,200 miles away, three mock warheads struck Kwajalein atoll in the Marshall Islands. The timing of the test—announced to both Russia andChina—was probably no coincidence: America was sending a message. Whoever was elected, its armed forces were ready to respond to any threat.
This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “Lost in transition”
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