The real focus of the study was the high-value Cold War real estate known as the Fulda Gap, which extended from the East German border to Frankfurt, West Germany, and was pinned as the likely invasion route for Soviet conventional forces. The lowlands there were perfect terrain for Soviet tanks to barrel across on their way west. The Soviet Union enjoyed overwhelming conventional superiority, and American policy at the time was to threaten to use tactical nuclear weapons, a sort of take-no-prisoners approach to the European battlefield.
