Description

In the Cold War conflict that pitted nuclear superpowers against one another Europe was the principal battleground Washington and Moscow had troops on the ground and missiles in the fields of their respective allies the NATO nations and the states of the Warsaw Pact Euromissilesintermediaterange nuclear weapons to be used exclusively in the regional theater of warhighlighted how the peoples of Europe were dangerously placed between hammer and anvil

At the center of the story is NATO Colbourn highlights the weakness of the alliance seen by many as the most effective bulwark against Soviet aggression Divided among themselves and uncertain about the depth of US support the member states were riven by the missile issue This strategic crisis was as much as any summit meeting between US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev the hinge on which the Cold War turned

Euromissiles is a history of diplomacy and alliances social movements and strategy nuclear weapons and nagging fears and politics Colbourn takes a long view of the strategic crisisfrom the emerging dilemmas of allied defense in the early 1950s through the aftermath of the INF Treaty thirtyfive years later The result is a dramatic and sweeping tale that changes the way we think about the Cold War and its culmination