There it is over and over, “1970”, 1970 and your personal connection to the Cold War, frozen in time.
OK......You want to talk about your experiences in 1970?
I know what it was like in 1980..The cold war never crossed my mind. But it did from 1958-1975.
By the time you were in Germany, near war events had ceased. Our subs were no longer sinking or ramming each other and full SAC alerts were unheard of.
Freeking Brezhnev was premier of Russia..
He was from the start a political puppet of the Politburo. Never made a decision. The Politburo wanted a era of perestroika. (Glasnost came later)
It was a policy of peace, or the Russian version of it.
More importantly, Brezhnev had a medical condition that at time rendered him useless. About all he could do was wave at the crowds.
From a strategic standpoint, when you were in Europe, the big bad bear was already in his den getting comfortable..