Could they have been stopped?

[Akira 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Mister Frag @ Jan. 06 2003,22:23)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">6--></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Akira @ Jan. 06 2003,096)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Should Germany be on the verge of collapse, what would the likelihood of German commanders taking matters into their own hands with nukes be?<span id='postcolor'>

Where would they get nukes from?<span id='postcolor'>

Sorry...was assuming the gaining of control of the tac nukes stationed in Germany at that time, whether through force or other means.

[Mister Frag 0]

They would have had to fight the US and penetrate secure storage sites to get them. I think the possibility of that happening is virtually nil.

[Akira 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Mister Frag @ Jan. 06 2003,22:35)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">They would have had to fight the US and penetrate secure storage sites to get them. I think the possibility of that happening is virtually nil.<span id='postcolor'>

Well assuming an invasion, and assuming that in the hypothetical Germany was on the verge of collapse. Those nukes would have been moved if not distributed to theater commanders in the least.

[Warin 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Akira @ Jan. 06 2003,22:37)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE"></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Mister Frag @ Jan. 06 2003,22:35)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">They would have had to fight the US and penetrate secure storage sites to get them. I think the possibility of that happening is virtually nil.<span id='postcolor'>

Well assuming an invasion, and assuming that in the hypothetical Germany was on the verge of collapse. Those nukes would have been moved if not distributed to theater commanders in the least.<span id='postcolor'>

I'd say moved would be, by far, the more likely option.

Call me an eternal optomist, but in the case of a land war in Europe, I truly dont believe that the nuclear option would ever have been exercised.

Why?

You couldnt keep the use of nukes as a tactical option on the battlefield. It would have cascaded until there was an exchange of ICBM's and none of us would be much more than stragglers in a radioactive wasteland.

During the Cuban Missile Crisis, the threat of the total destruction of humanity was far lower. Had Kruschev and Kennedy 'pulled the trigger' it wouldnt have ended the world. But later, once the era of the ICBM was in full swing, I dont think any leader would have been insane enough to use nukes in ANY situation.

[Tovarish 0]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Warin @ Jan. 06 2003,23)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">I dont think any leader would have been insane enough to use nukes in ANY situation.<span id='postcolor'>

I think you are an optimist <!--emo&. Desperate leaders facing a complete and devastating military defeat often do/order their population to do suicidal things in order to hurt their enemy as much as possible. Take Japan at the end of WW2, or the German propaganda that was being pumped out as the Soviets closed in "Better Dead than Red". At the height of the cold war both sides had an extreemely different lifestyle, and the populations of both sides were indoctrinated to believe that the absolute worst thing which could happen would have been to have the enemy's lifestyle imposed on them.

Dunno, maybe I'm the pessimist, sometimes I just don't have much faith in the human species . For one I'm kind of glad that we'll never know for sure.

[MrMilli 0]

I have to say (for once ) I agree with Tovarish.

If the Soviets had knocked past the Multi-national forces in Germany, then I doubt quite a bit that anyone would give em a pat on the back and go home convinced "They wanted it more"

You'd be growing a third arm before you knew what happened

[Paratrooper 0]

Germany was offered the Neutron Bomb by America and they turned it down atthe last moment. They obviously thought that it was undesirable to use nuclear weapons on German soil, albeit East German. I am certain that a push in Germany would have brought about a nuclear exchange but not at a tactical level.

Besides as we now know the Soviet Union had no such plans.

[Tovarish 0]

0--></span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Paratrooper @ Jan. 07 2003,010)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">Besides as we now know the Soviet Union had no such plans.<span id='postcolor'>

I just remembered this snippet from a book I have - Jane's "How to Fly and Fight in the Mikoyan MiG-29" (It has a section about it's use in East germany and it's role in a possible war)

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">

Certainly, Warsaw Pact planning in Europe was based ona massive attack against NATO - albeit one which was justified as being a response to the NATO attack which was expected would accompany Capitalism's dying gasps.

Documents which came to light following German reunification have revealed how a war might have been conducted in the 1970s. The conflict would have opened up with massive nuclear strikes against NATO installations in Germany. The Dutch border was marked as the "limit of strategic and operational nuclear strikes" using some 320 warheads. The USSR presumably hoped that this would keep NATO's nuclear response similarly geographically limited. Warsaw Pact armies would then have fought through Germany in their NBC protective gear, occupiying the whole of Germany in three days, before rolling on to the Channel and the Pyrenees. The Warsaw Pact printed and stored a new occupation currency to replace the Deutschmark, together with ID papers for 300000 East German administrators who would take over the running of the old West Germany. They even minted thousands of invasion medals!

In the 1980's, defensive tactics and conventional weapons were increasingly emphasized, but when an East German officer was questioned by his Bundeswehr opposite number about his defensive plans, the East German succinctly replied "Antwerp". But the first use of nuclear weapons was effectively abandoned at an early stage, placing more importance on the neautralization of NATO air power.

<span id='postcolor'>

[Mister Frag 0]

Having lived on top of the Bullseye for the Warsaw Pact in the '70s when that strategy was still being considered, I'm sure glad that the world seems to have come to its senses, at least as far as nukes are concerned.