The "Sputnik Moment" rhetoric highlights the Cold War paranoia of the United States

Source: Reference News Network

Reference News Network reported on October 31 that the Washington Post website published an article titled "This is not a 'Sputnik moment', and we should not promote Cold War paranoia" on October 28, written by Faried Zakaria. The full text is excerpted below:

Have we witnessed yet another "Sputnik moment"? The Financial Times reported that China had test-fired a "hypersonic missile" this summer, which China denied. Admiral Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, likened the test to that turning point during the Cold War.

Millikin should review his history books. China's test has nothing in common with the Soviet Union's launch of sputnik, and making such an assertion would in fact fuel a paranoia that is currently intensifying in Washington.

The Sputnik incident was a revolution in the space race, and hypersonic missiles are old news. Hypersonic missiles fly at 5 times the speed of sound or even faster. Since 1959, the United States and the Soviet Union have deployed intercontinental ballistic missiles that are faster than 20 times the speed of sound. Even Germany's V-2 rockets, which were first used to attack London in the final stages of World War II, flew at nearly hypersonic speeds. Cameron Tracy, an expert at Stanford University on the subject, points out that hypersonic weapons have neither faster speeds nor better stealth characteristics than intercontinental ballistic missiles.