Waking up after a few years in a coma in the late 1970s, one would have thought that the end of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was nigh. Peace movements calling for pacifism and neutralism seemed to have gotten the upper hand, leading to the most spectacular bout of social turmoil since the late 1960s. Fake bonhomie among Western dignitaries barely concealed the West Europeans’ declining faith in U.S. leadership under President Jimmy Carter. U.S. officials, for their part, were increasingly doubtful about the European countries’ willingness to take part in joint defense efforts. These splits occasionally degenerated into bitter recriminations over the condition and direction of the Western alliance. NATO´s momentous “dual-track” decision in December 1979 to deploy 464 ground-launched cruise missiles (GLCMs) and 108 Pershing II missiles on European soil failed to stem the discord within the alliance.
Susan Colbourn's new book retells the multi-layered and complex...