A great many books and journal articles about the social, political, economic, and grand strategy aspects of the Cold War have been written since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Relatively few studies, however, have been devoted to the military strategy, plans, and tactics around which the lives of hundreds of thousands of soldiers in both East and West centered for more than four decades. The “operational military history” of the Cold War addresses such questions as: What were the specific military plans of both sides? What were the assumptions on which those plans were based? How did each side intend to cope with any relative manpower or technological advantages of the other side? How did chemical and nuclear weapons factor into the plans of both sides? Would any initial military clash in Central Europe inevitably have escalated into a global nuclear war? And, not least, what would happen to...

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