Experts' Corner on Deterrence and Defence (The Cold War era)

Films and videos

Exercise Keystone
Exercise Keystone, held in Greece and Turkey from 1 – 5 September 1954, was NATO's largest manoeuvre that year.

Atomic Annie
Watch a simulation launch of a nuclear shell from "Atomic Annie", an American atomic gun, during Exercise Keystone in September 1954.

Exercise Indian Summer
NATO Exercise Indian Summer took place 22 – 26 September 1954 in the US zone of Germany at a time when it was still being questioned what role Germany would play in the Alliance.

NATO’s power for peace
NATO member armed forces work together to form an Alliance for peace and security.

NATO launches its first satellite
Watch NATO’s first communication satellite successfully launch into space March 1970!

Audio files

Dr. Jamie Shea was a prominent NATO official. Among his many responsibilities, he was Director of Information and Press and the face of NATO during the Kosovo crisis when he was NATO’s Spokesman. He also held the post of Deputy Assistance Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges. Jamie Shea continues to be very active in academic circles in Europe and North America.

1979: The Soviet Union deploys its SS20 missiles
This fifth lecture in the six-part series, Jamie's History Class, explores how NATO survived the challenges of a post-Cold War Europe. Transcript

Other lectures in Jamie’s History Class series:

• 1949: NATO’s anxious birth
• 1956: Khrushchev delivers his “secret speech”
• 1989: The Berlin Wall comes down and soldiers go home (MP3)
  
• 1994: NATO fires its first shot

Declassified documents

Delve into NATO's strategic thinking from 1949 to today.

• NATO's strategic concepts, 1949 to 1969: documents and reports
• Strategic Concepts topic page

Speeches and articles

• Strategic concepts, 1949-1969: historical analysis
  Former SHAPE Historian Gregory Pedlow describes the historical context surrounding 20 years of NATO strategic planning.
• The NATO-Warsaw Pact competition in the 1970s and 1980s
  Diego Ruiz-Palmer asks whether NATO vs. Warsaw Pact competition signalled the end of a strategic era or represented a military affairs revolution in the making?

NATO publications from the past

Vigilance – The price of liberty (1960)

Aspects of NATO – Defence planning and policy (1970 – 1971)

The Atlantic Alliance and the Warsaw Pact: A comparative study (1971)

Some problems of détente (1976)

Aspects of NATO series 1 no 1 – Military posture: NATO and the Warsaw Pact (1980)

Some Soviet and Warsaw Pact military facts and figures (1980)

Deterrence: The Western approach (1986)

Force Comparison 1987: NATO and the Warsaw Pact

Military forces in transition (1991)