Is the latest SoCal missile test launch a reminder of the Cold War days?

CULVER CITY, Calif. (FOX 11 / CNS) - The Pentagon says it did just what it was supposed to do. An interceptor missile, launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base, taking aim at a mock warhead launched from the Marshall Islands. It was like a bullet hitting a bullet over the Pacific.

A good result for a missile that until this launch had been successful only 9 times out of 17 attempts.

The Missile Defense Agency's Director saying the test demonstrates that we have a capable, credible deterrent against a very real threat. That threat North Korea that has talked a lot about aiming ICBM's toward the West Coast.

Justin Jampol, the founder and Executive Director of the Wende Museum says "The Vandenberg launch feels very cold war-esque." Jampol is an historian. The museum focuses on the Cold War era.

Says Jampol, "We in the 80's had SDI. We had star wars for similar reasons and we're embarking again on an anti-missile system that feels like the past is becoming the present."

In the present…North Korea with its launches has created plenty of tension.

In 1949, in Culver City, a National Guard Armory was built with thick walls and, a vault that was meant to be a bunker for people if a bomb dropped over Los Angeles. Jampol and his team are now converting that into their new museum site. It's not far from their current location.

Is history repeating itself? Maybe, but Jampol says a lot of what's going on may be to reassure the country as much as to be sure that we have is operational.

Jampol adds, "This is a very public test. North Korea has been an issue for awhile. I know this is one of the things the new administration was worried about as one of the biggest threats or issues so, it doesn't surprise me this has been in the works for awhile. But, it has to be seen as much as testing a missile it has to be reassuring the country that we're doing what we can to prepare."

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