The Rise and Fall of the Pentomic Army

Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev failed to reach an agreement on the elimination of nuclear weapons while in power, but both men agreed in 1985 “that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.” These words were not always widely accepted and, for decades, the United States and the Soviet Union rehearsed fighting and winning a nuclear war. In one such scenario from early in the Cold War, U.S. Army units would be asked to use nuclear weapons on the battlefield to offset perceived conventional disadvantages and win a nuclear war before it escalated to the use … Continue reading The Rise and Fall of the Pentomic Army