Shipping and underwater cables sustain daily life while remaining largely out of public sight. Sea blindness describes the resulting difficulty in recognizing the value of maritime activity and its protection. In this interpretation, confidence in Western surface superiority during the Cold War added a misleading sense of security. Post-Cold War expectations that history had ended encouraged the belief that another major war at sea would not occur. Expectations of a war lasting only days, or minutes after nuclear launches, further reduced attention to sustained naval operations. A more capable Yak-38 and Kiev combination might have disturbed that confidence and altered later perceptions of sea power, although the outcome remains speculative.
Notable Point · 46:27-48:23
Sea blindness, surface superiority and short-war assumptions
The closing argument connects unseen maritime infrastructure and confidence in surface superiority with assumptions that made prolonged naval war seem unlikely.