Soviet Options for War in Europe: Nuclear or Conventional,

Abstract

The prevailing conviction among Westernn military and civilian leaders is that a Warsaw Pact attack against NATO would begin without the use of nuclear weapons and that the Pact would prefer the war remain conventional. This paper will examine Soviet declaratory doctrine, force posture, and other considerations, and judge the validity of the current Western position on the issue. Those factors which would motivate the Soviets to shun the use of nuclear weapons will be examined first, followed by an examination of those factors which encourage first use of nuclear weapons by the Soviet Union.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1979
Accession Number
ADA064245

Entities

People

  • Graham D. Vernon

Organizations

  • National Defense University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Counter WMD

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Arms Control
  • Central Europe
  • Chemical Weapons
  • Doctrine
  • Geography
  • International Law
  • International Relations
  • Military Science
  • National Politics
  • National Security
  • Nuclear Weapons
  • United States
  • Ussr
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare
  • Western Europe

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

  • European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP).
  • Strategic Security Studies