I agree that it was us who probably needed tactical nukes to stop the overwhelming attack energy and capabilities that the Warsaw pact was built on.
This isn’t relevant but during the Vietnam war, I was Field Artillery and had a nuke clearance, we knew what that was about, and I still assumed that during the 1980s when I was doing something entirely different when we all anticipated dirty battle fields and our electronic gear was EMP protected.
In other words that was always the assumption, it isn’t insider stuff, we just couldn’t stop them with conventional forces (probably). Remember the Neutron bomb, it was developed for fighting in the West.
“I agree that it was us who probably needed tactical nukes to stop the overwhelming attack energy and capabilities that the Warsaw pact was built on”
Ansel you actually listed the primary reason why we saw the “pact’ as a serious military threat from the German side.
We had the bulk of our forces in Vietnam. We had troops and equipment scattered all over the planet. The “Pact” had all of their men and all of their stuff lined up against us,a inferior force in numbers.
Russia and that “pact” were not as big as they seemed.
Let me carry that thought on a bit before I go.
Situations have radically changed since then. We have now far fewer forces, less equipment, but better.
The Russians have crap. But they have enough crap to do what they want to do. They have no real opposition so they could do it if they wanted to.
I’m not sure that they want to just yet. I think they are testing the waters. How the test goes will determine Putin’s future planning. I don’t see a shooting war with the US. Just don’t see it happening.
But I do see in the relatively near future a combined move with Russia going after another chunk of eastern Europe, and at the same time, China going after what they want, which would be Taiwan and some current Japanese islands.
Based on what we do, they will adjust and either keep pushing of hold up for a bit and let things settle. If there is no price to pay, they will start up again.
It might be possible that by that time, the US will not be able to respond. For a variety of reasons, most of them domestic.
It’s a dangerous world, and Obama has really screwed up the US. Our weakness domestically is what has awoken the Bear as well as the Red Chinese.
Field Artillery and nuke clearance? You weren’t with the Pershing brigade, were you?
I was a communications person (SSB radio, then FM retransmission) from 83-85 with the Pershing missile brigade.
The US Army maintained three ‘firing units’ in West Germany, where Pershing missiles stood ready to fire at all times. Those ‘ready-to-go’ missiles were in case of a Soviet ‘BOOB’ (Bolt Out Of the Blue) nuke attack. In case of a possible invasion of Soviet forces, we’d likely have some fore-warning with observations of a buildup of forces, increasing global tensions, that sort of thing. If that was the case, the Pershings were designed to be able to move fast and not sit anywhere too long. If worse came to worse, and the Sovs had our backs against the wall, NATO would have likely popped the missiles and we’d run like Hell in a westerly direction.
(BTW...side note: The original Pershings [1 and 1A] were medium-range missiles that could probably hit the Polish border with Russia. The Sovs weren’t ‘too’ concerned with them. In 83, we fielded the Pershing 2. Improved accuracy, greater range...and could now hit well into western Russia from our German firing sites. THAT got the Soviets attention. It was about the time that the P2’s were deployed when large amounts of money started flowing into the ‘peace groups’ of Germany. Those who didn’t like American nukes [never officially admitted...but hey...everyone knew] in their backyard could now focus more of their time on protesting against us since they now had much more support money. You can bet that our intelligence people traced that money all the way back to 2 Dzerzhinsky Square...KGB headquarters.)