Just as President Obama was trying to renew world attention to the horrific threat of nuclear proliferation in the 21st century, an ancient drama of piracy on the high seas yanked him back to the past.

The seizure off Africa of an American cargo ship and the taking hostage of 20 Americans, its recapture by the crew and the holding of the captain for ransom was right out of the swashbuckling era.

It was the latest reminder of the limitations of American power. A small band of freelancers, rather than a rival national entity, was able to defy military muscle in pursuing its ends. On a much smaller scale, it was not unlike the 9/11 terrorist attacks by al-Qaida that has tied the world's surviving superpower in knots ever since.

This one was driven by the age-old quest of ill-gotten gain, not by any ideological ambition to change the world. But it illustrated on the simplest level that immense firepower these days can't solve everything.

The last time a somewhat similar challenge faced an American president was 38 years ago. Under much more dire circumstances, a strong dose of that firepower by President Gerald Ford was deployed with mixed results.

It happened in May 1975, after brutal Khmer Rouge insurgents had defeated Cambodian forces supported by the United States. The victors intercepted and seized an American merchant ship, the Mayaguez, and held it and the crew at the port of Sihanoukville.

Ford, after a National Security Council meeting, ordered not only the seizing of the ship but also heavy air strikes against mainland military sites. The sweeping operation cost the death of 41 American forces and the wounding of 50 others, a toll higher than the number of American lives saved.

Ford's sledgehammer response occurred shortly after the fall of Saigon, when the last of American personnel were evacuated from South Vietnam and the limits of U.S. power were so emphatically demonstrated. The military strength and will to use it in retaking the Mayaguez gave Ford a boost in public opinion at home but brought much condemnation abroad.

The latest incident off the African coast did not immediately trigger any similar show of power, with the Pentagon merely dispatching a destroyer to the distant site of the seizing. For one thing, there was no compelling political reason for Obama to demonstrate toughness, as it could be argued Ford required after the U.S. humiliation in Vietnam.

More politically troublesome for the new president may well be congressional reaction to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates' just-disclosed plans for spending cuts in the billions of dollars for Pentagon weapons systems. Gates wants to trim and revamp the immense U.S. military arsenal to put greater focus on counterinsurgency required now and in the future, and less on conventional wars.

Members of Congress from states with major defense contractors already ordering job cuts amid the sharp economic downturn are arguing this is not the time for such actions. Slated as a particular casualty of the Gates decision is continued procurement of F-22 stealth fighter aircraft, manufactured by defense contractor giant Lockheed Martin.

The Obama administration's proposed Pentagon reductions are likely to resurrect Republican allegations that the Democratic Party is soft on defense. It's a charge that has long made Democrats in Congress gun-shy about tackling major cuts in military spending. The fact that Gates is a Republican carryover at the Defense Department from the Bush Administration isn't likely to diminish that GOP chorus of Democratic weakness.

Obama sought in his first weeks in the Oval Office to convey responsibility in winding down the U.S. presence in Iraq, pursuing the unfinished war in Afghanistan and focusing on eradication of al-Qaida there and in Pakistan. While thus reassuring Republicans in these regards, he is already feeding dissatisfaction among the Democratic anti-war faction on Capitol Hill. It sees Obama's posture as little more than a continuation of the Bush stay-the-course policy of the past.

In all this, the dramatic piracy on the high seas is a sideshow to more demanding military matters facing the new White House occupant.

Reach Jules Witcover at (Unknown address).

Jules Witocver is the author of "Very Strange Bedfellows," a book on the Nixon-Agnew relationship. Reach him at juleswitcover@earthlink.net.