From a Washington Post column by David Ignatius headlined “With Chinese balloon, a hidden Cold War contest drifted into the open”:

Fans of the classic 1964 black comedy “Dr. Strangelove” will remember a moment when the mad doctor warns the president about an impending “mineshaft gap” between the United States and the Soviets. The very survival of the nation suddenly seems to depend on these heretofore irrelevant holes in the ground.

And now we have fears of the “balloon gap.”