The protection theme probably plays in strongly with the prideful defiance about developing nuclear weapons, too. The whole Bush-ear propaganda about the Evil Empire and the Axis of Evol and all that probably played beautifully into justifying *their* propaganda about sufgfering to support the military efforts and paying for all that stuff.
I'm also waiting to hear what happens with the succession. I remember reading BBC articles discussing different generals and family relatives and the whole thing sounds like a depressing movie about Chinese dynastic wars.