AP Photo

President Obama’s decision to revise the Bush administration’s plan for missile defense in Europe has been greeted with anxiety and alarm in the Czech Republic and Poland.

The fear in these countries, and elsewhere in Central Europe, is that the strategic relationship with the United States is being marginalized, and that relations with Russia are being “reset” at the region’s expense.

Part of the problem is that rhetorically at least, the Bush administration seemed to make the strategic partnership with the Czech Republic and Poland synonymous with placement of missile defense radars and interceptors on Czech and Poland soil respectively.

As a result, even though placement of this hardware met with some public opposition in both countries (in the Czech...