Matters of Perspective: Versioned Realities in Cold War WMD Intelligence is a study of the development and evolution, during three decades, of the Soviet WMD Operation-the integrated employment of at least nuclear and chemical weapons against the NATO alliance.
The book examines the 1950s origination; creation of an expansive war fighting mechanism; apparent deletion of the CW variant in the 1970s; alterations in nuclear strategy; and non-nuclear options. Aspects of a unique strategic culture-inherited by the Russia successor-exhibited in an extensive array of classified documents acquired by the CIA is a significant element. Soviet theater operations planning to exploit mass destruction and conventional weapons by the mobilization and deployment of fronts (the basic ground-aviation assault groupings) provide context. Both substantive and perceptual problems of Western intelligence assessments are explored including details of stunning analytic failures.
The 352 pages include 54 pages of illustrations.