WARSAW PACT

The 69th Ordnance Company was a part of NATO. The ultimate cold war adversary of NATO was the Warsaw Pact--the USSR and the communist states in Eastern Europe. Sensible people thought at the time that these states, by and large, were unwilling participants in a Soviet empire, and that the alleged Paradise of the Proletariat was a grim lie which was destined to fail. Until that day came, however, the Warsaw Pact had millions of soldiers, thousands of tanks and artillery pieces, thousands of modern aircraft and thousands of nuclear weapons. It was a potent and nasty foe, indeed. There is quite a bit of information on Pact strength on the internet. Perhaps the most extensive Warsaw Pact site, with many fascinating declassified Pact documents, is here.

Perhaps because the Warsaw Pact collapsed suddenly along with the Soviet Union, you can find revisionist thinking on the internet to the effect that the Pact was merely a paper--well maybe, cardboard--tiger.

We Plutonians don't believe it. A snapshot of Warsaw Pact troop strength in the early 1980's can be found here. As for the awesome power of the Soviet nuclear forces, check out this movie.

NATO, of course, was formed in response to Soviet aggression and repression. The Warsaw Pact pretended to be a response of the "peaceloving states" of the Pact to the aggressive intentions of NATO. The text of the Warsaw Pact is reproduced here; while you read it, you can enjoy the "Warsaw Polka".

A short history of the Pact, authored by the Library of Congress just before the Pact folded its tent, is here.

Soldiers stationed at Site Pluto fatalistically assumed that in the event of war, the Pact would quickly attempt to vaporize us. We now know we were right. You can read the Warsaw Pact plans for a nuclear strike on Vicenza, Verona, Munich and even Vienna here. The overall war plan is here. An article about the Warsaw Pact's plans appeared in the Giornale di Vicenza; it is here.

We Plutonians assumed that the Russians would attempt an invasion of Italy should the "balloon go up." Little did we know that, as shown by these Warsaw Pact files, the Hungarian People's Army had the mission of invading Italy. Amazing--history repeating itself after 1500 years, when the Huns invaded Italy in 452 A.D.

The long and the short of it is, here's what the Warsaw Pact wanted to do to us.

 

Musical selection: The National Anthem of the USSR