I served in Germany 1969-70. My boss was career, and he said the plan if hostilities broke out in Europe, was to hold Germany for a few days, until nukes could be used to even things out.
IOW the USSR was dominant in terms of conventional forces.
The ground troop in Germany during the Cold War, were expendable.
We have but a fraction today, of those Cold War force numbers.
The Soviet tanks could only do about 100-200 miles before they were toast. They either broke down or just became too difficult to be inside. It also would take them months of easily detected preparations to get an invasion spun up.
“I served in Germany 1969-70. My boss was career, and he said the plan if hostilities broke out in Europe, was to hold Germany for a few days, until nukes could be used to even things out.
IOW the USSR was dominant in terms of conventional forces.”
That is why the Soviets fought so hard to prevent or retard the deployment of INF in Europe in the 1970s and 1980s.