The Cold War: A MILITARY History

by David Miller

An examination of the effects of the Cold War from a military standpoint describes the weapons, equipment, and armies of the superpowers, as well as how close they came to being used.

Genres: History, War

480 pages, Hardcover

First published December 31, 1999

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

It no doubt would be difficult to write a single all-enconmpassing book on the Cold War due to the complexities of the geopolitical struggle on a world wide stage. David Miller focuses his book on Europe and the stand off between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. There are certainly interesting descriptions of the diplomatic and political evolution of both NATO and the Warsaw Pact. It gives a hint of the chaotic period immediately following World War II. There are also discussions of major events from 1945 to 1989 such as the various Berlin crisies and the Pershing II missle deployment. However, these discussions are rather short to keep the volume to a manageable size. What does occupy a significant amount of space is virtually an inventory of major weapons systems the two sides deployed over the years. The laundry list of weapons and statistics sometimes bordered on tedium.

The author was obviously of the opinion that any conflict in Europe would quickly go nuclear. Therefore, considerable attention is placed on both tactical and strategic nuclear weapons and policies. His use of unclassified official studies made for some interesting reading. The possible devastation to Europe would have been beyond words.

The edition reviewed here was published in 1998. It would be interesting to update the volume with additional information available since then from Russian sources. Events such as the 1983 Able Archer exercise would be an interesting addition to the book.

I can recommend this book to true miliraty history aficionados, especially those who served in the military and in Europe during the Cold War. The casual reader I think would quickly get bored with the sterile analytical style.

[Melvin Patterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting discussions about the history and the strategic use of military weapons during the Cold War. That said, incredibly tedious. There's an awful lot of detail about specific weapon systems and designs that lack any kind of context in the sense of military decision-making and thought underlying adoption of weapon systems (or the lack thereof). It's like the author had a list of weapon and other systems he obtained from a FOIA or other government request and just slapped the list into the book without much thought or analysis.

The first part of the book really sets the stage for what was going on militarily and politically, but after that, the book kind of degenerates into a weapons inventory.

[Mike Pinter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chilling. Very chilling. This was a very sobering and informative book to read. We are fortunate that a lot of professional soldiers went a long way to avoid misunderstandings escalating.
As it is a military history it did not stray into explaining the political context of some moments, the zeitgeist, nor does it get into explaining the clandestine operations that were required to gather the intelligence referring to Warsaw Pact's preparedness, but it is very complete in other aspects. The edition I read is dated 1988 yet it mentions events like the Gulf War. Reading it 34 years later, one wonders how different it would be if it were to incorporate information that has become public domain since then.

[Tlazeni Citlalli · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very useful book to know more about the military history and arms build up of the major forces of NATO and the Warsaw Pact during the Cold War.
The author includes all three major branches of military: air force, navy and infantry, with special consideration for the development of nuclear and thermonuclear weapons.
In the final part of the book the author adds an analysis about how a war, wether a limited war or a nuclear total war, between the two blocs would've developed had it come to that.

[RuinEleint · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somewhat informative, but as dry and boring as a technical manual.