Fighting the Soviet Army: Archive of U.S. Manuals on Soviet Weapons, Electronic Warfare, Missiles, and Nuclear Battlefield Operations, 1978 to 1984

1978. U.S. Army and Defense Department Soviet-threat instruction archive documenting late Cold War American intelligence on Soviet ground forces into battle-simulation tables, field doctrine, weapons comparisons, and nuclear battlefield procedures. "Soviet Military Power," carrying Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger's printed preface, shows Soviet tanks, artillery, helicopters, SS-20 and ICBM and SLBM launchers, bombers, naval construction, Afghanistan, and technology acquisition. The technology-transfer passage offers one of the clearest Cold War intelligence arguments stating that "The communist countries are some of the National Technical Information Services' best customers," and that before the Soviet subscription was terminated in February 1980 the Soviets bought an estimated 80,000 NTIS documents each year. Set beside Army manuals on Soviet organization, antitank weapons, SCUD-B missiles, PT-76 tanks, electronic warfare, and nuclear battlefield doctrine, the passage records an information war fought through public documents as much as espionage, the same government warning of Soviet acquisition of American technical literature was producing its own unclassified guides to Soviet equipment and tactics for battle simulation, officer training, and operational planning.

Archive of five U.S. government publications and extracts on Soviet military organization, operations, tactics, weapons, electronic warfare, technology transfer, and nuclear battlefield doctrine. The group consists of staple-bound, punched, and wrappered government manuals and reports with organizational charts, contents pages, doctrinal summaries, weapons tables, captions, printed prefaces, equipment photographs, and restricted-distribution or field-manual markings.

1] United States Army Combined Arms Combat Developments Activity. HB 550-2, Organization and Equipment of the Soviet Army. Fort Leavenworth, Kansas: Threats Division, Concepts, Doctrine and Literature Directorate, Combined Arms Combat Developments Activity, 31 July 1978. Approximately 70 pages.

2] Defense Intelligence Agency. Review of the Soviet Ground Forces. RSGF 1-80. Washington, D.C.: Defense Intelligence Agency, January 1980. 39 pages.

3] United States Department of Defense. Soviet Military Power. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1981. 99 Pages. Approximately 55 pages.

4] United States Department of the Army. FM 100-2-1, The Soviet Army: Operations and Tactics. Washington, D.C.: Headquarters, Department of the Army, 16 July 1984. Approximately 110 Pages.

5] United States Department of the Army. Extract FM 100-2-1, The Soviet Army: Operations and Tactics. Washington, D.C.: Headquarters, Department of the Army, after 16 July 1984. Approximately 40 Pages.

These materials come out of the most dangerous turn of the late Cold War, the years when détente collapsed and the United States rearmed against an adversary it believed it was losing ground to. Afghanistan, the failure of SALT II, and the Reagan buildup hardened the conviction that American intelligence had undercounted Soviet strength, and out of that conviction came an industry of threat assessment whose working products these are. This archive shows the American manufacturing knowledge of its enemy: Soviet organization, armor, and doctrine reduced to simulation tables at Fort Leavenworth, codified into field manuals, and repackaged as public argument under the Secretary of Defense's name. Containing many references to nuclear, biological, and chemical operations as routine doctrine, while Soviet Military Power tallies the SS-20, ICBM, and SLBM launchers aimed at the West. Working copies containing scattered annotations and highlighted portions in some. Overall in good condition.