Missile Defense: Americas Maginot Line

Between 1929 and 1940, France embarked on a huge and costly project to build a line of fortifications which stretched from Switzerland to the Ardennes in the North, and from the Alps to the Mediterranean in the South. The aim of the wall was to defend France against any further invasions by Germany. In 1940, even as new pillboxes were being poured along the Belgian frontier, Hitler invaded France.
While Hitler's successful invasion is often viewed as the failure of the Maginot concept, in point of fact the French defenses did all they were designed to do. Hitler did not try to fight the battle the Maginot line had been designed to fight; he found an alternative.
But it was less the Maginot Line than the "Maginot Mind set" that led to France's conquest. France's leadership, having spent a great deal of money and effort on the line itself, placed all of their faith in it, and failed to plan for attacks the Maginot fortresses were not prepared to deal with. Their wargames always assumed that Germany would attack the Maginot Line head-on, and in such wargames, the French always won. When Hitler invaded, he did not try to punch through the Maginot line, he simply went around it.
Today's version of the Maginot Line is the Nuclear Missile Defense System, aka "Star Wars". The concept is that the US will build these anti-missile missiles, which will prevent a head on attack with nuclear-tipped ICBMs, and we will all be safe.

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