Factors Affecting the Feasibility of a Warsaw Pact Invasion of Western Europe

Abstract

The end of the Cold War and the opening of selected archives in both Eastern and Western Europe provides scholars the opportunity to study this period with greater accuracy and detail than was previously possible. This study seeks to determine the feasibility of a Warsaw Pact invasion of Western Europe in 1987 through the examination of the factors that would have affected such an operation. After each of these factors have been analyzed then conclusions will be drawn about the probable course and termination of such a conflict in Central Europe. The argument will be made that NATO would have been able to hold onto most of West Germany in the event of such an attack.