Word: nato
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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PROPHETIC SCENARIOS fleshed out into popular bestsellers share one common flaw--they invariably prove wrong. To his credit, General Sir John Hackett, a former NATO army group commander with a string of letters dangling from his double-titled name, recognizes this...
Hackett knows as well as any of us that any effort to describe an international showdown between the U.S. and U.S.S.R. leading to world war can call to its aid only hypothesis and speculation, not prediction and calculation. Nevertheless, one can ask of our "top-ranking NATO generals and advisers" at least a little understanding of the international power structure they seek to preserve...
...WELL BE RIGHT. But his eagerness to prove a point blinds him to several important factors on which NATO political leaders (if not their military counterparts, Hackett inadvertently suggests) base their thinking. First, he assumes that generals on both sides will exercise self-restraint in the use of tactical nuclear weapons. No fighting force in history has ever believed it should not make full use of all available weapons, and battlefield nuclear equipment is abundantly available to both sides. Hackett avoids considering what effect the use of tactical nukes would have on the land war, on international public opinion...
...that this policy evolved to meet Soviet threats, real or perceived, in odd corners of the world. Places like Vietnam, not West Germany. European strategic thought should still be based firmly on the existence of nuclear stockpiles on both sides. If Hackett represents a style of thought fashionable among NATO military leaders, it's time they received some re-education in the realities of the post-World...
...February, American opponents of SALT II were fearful that verification of Soviet compliance with the pact had become difficult, if not downright impossible. The Norwegian military establishment has now offered to bridge the monitoring gap. Though nobody had asked Oslo, a Norwegian Defense Ministry spokesman declared that as a NATO ally, his country would be prepared to provide the U.S. with new listening posts and even with U-2 flights over the Soviet Union. The Norwegian military's proposal had been prompted by speculative news stories in the U.S. that suggested that Oslo's help would be welcome...