orb@whuts.UUCP (SEVENER) (01/29/86)
To answer Michael Lewis' quite reasonable question: > > By the way, how much more good are the forces of Belgium and the > Netherlands going to do for NATO than the forces of East Germany for the > Warsaw Pact? Do your manpower figures count the forces of Greece, Turkey, and > Italy, all of which are unlikely to be in the thick of a Central European > action? > I will again quote from Tom Gervasi's book, Arsenal of Democracy, which raises an important point as ignored by Western media as the current moratorium on all Soviet nuclear testing: "Only in Central Europe did the Warsaw Pact have a superiority of roughly 23,000, with forces of 805,000 facing 782,000 NATO troops. It was precisely because of this, and very much in the spirit of detente, that Brezhnev unilaterally withdrew 20,000 troops and 1,00 tanks from East Germany late in 1979. Brezhnev had hoped that in turn we would reconsider our planned deployment of Pershing II and Cruise missiles in Western Europe. (fat chance under Reagan! poster's note) We did not. There is now almost a perfect parity of forces in Central Europe, though available French forces would give the West a total strength in this region of 1,062,000.( to the Warsaw Pact's 785,000, poster's note)" tim sevener whuxn!orb