In May 1945, Wernher von Braun, architect of Nazi Germany's V-2 rocket program, sat across from an unlikely interrogator who was unlike other military officers. Though wearing a U.S. Army Air Forces uniform, this man was a scientist who spoke von Braun's language of mathematics, physics, and aerodynamics. Their conversation turned deeply technical, and von Braun quickly realized the man questioning him was more than competent—he was brilliant.

No one then knew that the father of the future U.S. space program was being quizzed by the father of the future Chinese space program. Von Braun muttered words that would prove prophetic: "You do not realize what you have in this man. He is a genius." The Americans indeed did not realize it: A decade later, in the grip of McCarthy-era paranoia, they deported the scientist, Qian Xuesen (also rendered as Tsien Hsue-Shen), to China.

At the time, Secretary of the Navy Dan Kimball assessed the decision to be a mistake, remarking: "It was the stupidest thing this country ever did. He was no more a Communist than I was, and we forced him to go." That mistake would shape the future of naval warfare. A polymath in the truest sense, one part von Braun, one part Oppenheimer, Qian would be instrumental in the development of both the Chinese space and nuclear weapons programs.

Most significantly, every major Chinese missile system in service today, from Dong Feng (DF) antiship ballistic missiles to Julang (JL) submarine-launched nuclear missiles, can trace its origins to Qian Xuesen. The U.S. Navy's evolving fleet design and missile defense systems can be seen, in part, as responses to technologies first enabled by Qian's vision.