Book description
While scholarship abounds on the diplomatic and security aspects of
the Cold War, very little attention has been paid to military planning
at the operational level. In Blueprints for Battle, experts from
Russia, the United States, and Europe address this dearth by closely
examining the military planning of NATO and Warsaw Pact member nations
from the end of World War II to the beginning of d?tente. Informed by
material from recently opened archives, this collection investigates
the perceptions and actions of the rival coalitions, exploring the
challenges presented by nuclear technology, examining how military
commanders' perceptions changed from the 1950s to the 1960s, and
discussing logistical coordination among allied states. The result is
a detailed study that offers much-needed new perspectives on the
military aspects of the early Cold War.
""The Cold War has been only indifferently plumbed by
scholars, especially regarding the Eastern Bloc. This book, with its
wealth of new and fascinating information on the subject, is
especially welcome."--Spencer C. Tucker, retired holder of the
John Biggs Chair of Military History at the Virginia Military
Institute and editor of the Encyclopedia of the Cold War, 5
vols." --
Jan Hoffenaar is head of the research division at the Netherlands
Institute of Military History, The Hague, and professor of military
history at Utrecht University. He is coeditor of Insurgency and
Counterinsurgency: Irregular Warfare from 1800 to the Present. He
lives in Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Dieter Kr?ger is associate professor (privatdozent) of contemporary
history at the Martin Luther University of Halle--Wittenberg and
historian at the Military History Research Institute (MGFA), Potsdam.
He lives in Potsdam, Germany.
Major General David T. Zabecki, AUS (Ret.), is the author of The
German 1918 Offensives: A Case Study in the Operational Level of War
and editor emeritus of Vietnam magazine. He holds the Shifrin
Distinguished Chair in Military and Naval History at the United States
Naval Academy and is also an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the
War Studies Programme at the University of Birmingham (United
Kingdom). He lives in Freiburg, Germany.
