this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2023
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Heinlein was horrified by Soviet Communism (and he'd traveled in the Soviet Union). He believed the US nuclear program (and space program) were a necessary protection against people like Stalin and Mao taking over the world.
There's a running theme in a number of his works, of people trying to find a society and a place in it where they can live safely, where they won't be oppressed for disagreeing with that society. It shows up in Stranger in a Strange Land, in "If This Goes Onβ", in the Lazarus Long stories, etc.
I think Heinlein's militarist liberal Americanism was contextual: he saw America as a place where a weirdo like him had a chance to live in peace, and that made it worth defending.