Making the Point— West Point’s Defenses and Digital Age Implications, 1778-1781
By Dr. Nicholas Michael Sambaluk
| July 31, 2018
Despite obvious distinctions, parallels exist between 18th century era fortification and the purposes, processes, and implications of pursuing security in an artificial cyber realm of the 21st century. The Revolutionary War era fortification of the Hudson River bottleneck focused upon the West Point area between 1778 and 1781. Differing professional perspectives and factors such as available resources led to disagreement about the defensive concept, and Thaddeus Kosciuszko’s construction of layered defenses strengthened the US position in the region during the latter phases of the war. British failure in a belated overland raid, demonstrating an inability to “brute” the new defenses, led to British interest in leveraging an insider threat (Benedict Arnold), but then as now, insider threats could not automatically guarantee success.
Making the Point—West Point’s Defenses and Digital Age Implications, 1778-1781