As tragically evidenced in Brussels last week, we are at war with an enemy that is driven by ideology, and prepared to fight without mercy or restraint. This is not the first time we’ve faced such a foe. During the Cold War, the United States led a global fight of momentous significance against the threat of totalitarian communism. Many of its lessons apply to our war against totalitarian Islam — particularly the importance of offering refuge and freedom to those escaping ideological extremism.

Cold War conservatives recognized that the future of the free world depends on cultivating allies behind enemy lines and demonstrating the attractions of the liberal West. Every refugee from a communist country was considered a victory for freedom and a repudiation of Soviet propaganda.