Hello? M-60?
Best Cold War Tank?
The M1 Abrams tank entered service in 1980...
It still had crooked teeth...
Atomic Tank: The Unique History of Centurion 169041 (nuked in a test and served another 23 years)
I’m a big fan of the Centurion. IMHO, it WAS the best tank of the Cold War until the MBT’s of the Eighties like the Abrams and the Leopard II. It might even have changed history had it appeared earlier in the Second World War.
Unfortunately, it was the only real bright spark of British tank building expertise. The succeeding Chieftain and Challenger I and II tanks proved problematic and probably weren’t as good. The Brits would probably have been better off simply further developing the Cent’ as the Israelis and South Africans did.
The Matilda gets an honorable mention for being the wrong tank at the right place. The Brits intended them as Infantry support tanks, but they were the only tanks that could stand up to the Panzer IVs in France and North Africa until sufficient Sherman’s began to arrive.
The Centurion was the best tank to serve over the entire course of the Cold War. Of course, better tanks were produced in the 1960s and beyond.