This is a discussion on Looking for a Cold War Book ( a new one) within the Military Books and Magazines forum, part of the Geo-strategic Issues category; It has been 20 years since I read Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy,
I am not an expert at ...
It has been 20 years since I read Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy,
I am not an expert at strategies and warfare during Cold War but in my opinion it was a realistic scenario that might happen. Before the end of Cold War, there was limited information about the capabilities ( at least for the public) of Soviet Armed Forces. Cold War has ended and there seems to be much more information about then classified information ( Wikipedia becoming a sort of amateur Jane's, Google Earth giving us details of every military base and of course guided tours of the ships, submarines, aircraft carriers, airbases of Russian Air Forces in YouTube) available to general public and probably more to the professional analyst and military personnel.
So, my question is, since we can understand the capabilities of both Nato and Warsaw Pact during 1980s much better then 20 years ago, Is there any book or article you can suggest for me to read as an update of Red Storm Rising? A book that can draw a very realistic estimate of the performance of weapons, strategies of commanders, and outcome of the war etc.
Location: Under your bed. No seriously, take a look.
Posts: 11,802
Threads:
I doubt there is one. Much information is still classified. The nuclear threshold is debatable. And the opinions on the quality and capability of the two militaries continue to diverge.
if you look for realistic, i don't recommend Tom Clancy. though he has extensive knowledge on US and OPFORs military, he's also somekind of supremacist. His view are rather "one sided", not that it's wrong though. You should try to read Arc Light by Eric L. Henry. It's pretty realistic and also involve a limited Nuclear scenario.
________________ Here's how you make a good soldiers. First you train them, then you trust them.
There's always the East-German analyses of the various REFORGER exercises, which include data from the original scenarios (that still aren't released by NATO). Those are fun. In German, if you can read that...
They usually scoffed at the NATO late-80s scenarios as unrealistic btw.
The German Federal Archive has the entire "Protocols of the National Defense Council of East Germany" available online in German (scans of the original files): MidosaXML
15 Minutes: General Curtis Lemay and the Countdown to Nuclear Annihilation
15 Minutes: General Curtis Lemay and the Countdown to Nuclear Annihilation
I am reading it now, and it is a 'solid ok'. It focuses on SAC's development of Quick Alert procedures and overviews many of the larger nuclear accidents. My only gripe is that it is slightly misleading when describing some of the nuclear accidents, and doesn't always make clear whether or not a nuclear core was present in the 'accident bombs'
In one chapter, the author appears to say that a nuclear detonation occured accidently over Alaska, which is false. A nuclear bomb's high explosive detonator, with no nuclear core or nuclear material present, exploded after it was jettisoned from a broken aircraft.
Other than that, it is a solid book. Has a good overview of the 'Texas Towers' and how they fit into Cold War posturing.
Thank you for your suggestions, I ordered them now so hopefully it will be a part of my summer reading.
I just have finished Kremlin's Nuclear Sword. Although, it is a slow paced non-fiction book it is quite interesting as it is about nuclear forces and their manufacturers in Soviet Union. It has a lot of detail about competitions between design offices and their effect on the whole nuclear program of Soviet Union.
