Us Strategic and Defensive Missile Systems 1950-2004

by Mark Berhow

Book Overview

For 40 years following the end of World War II, the Western democratic governments and the Eastern Bloc Communist powers were locked in the ideological, political, and economic struggle of the Cold War. The United States and the Soviet Union developed missile systems capable of delivering conventional and nuclear explosives against enemy massed bomber formations in the air, and of delivering retaliatory nuclear payloads against ground targets located...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1841768383
• ISBN13: 9781841768380
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: Osprey Publishing (UK)
• Length: 64 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 7.3" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

High-level View

As a former Titan II crew member, I found this to be a very high level view on the topic. It gave me some insight to the overall cold war paranoia -- missile silos were being dug before the missiles to fill them were test fired. The US dumped an incredible amount of money into these systems. I would recommend the book to anyone interested in any missile system of the period. It gives the "whole picture" view to all the pieces in the puzzle.

Outstanding diagrams of the most dangerous weapons known to man...

This book is an excellent graphical reference to U.S. missile systems. While lacking in technical detail that could only be found in Top Secret documents or the weapons system techincal orders, this book has the right tone to show how the weapons worked, and how they fit into U.S. strategy. Any more detail on individual systems would take up books by themselves - this has the right balance of detail and overview. A good companion to this book would be a comparison volume of Soviet/Russian systems written in the same vein. For those peaceniks out there - the ABM treaty originally allowed two ABM sites per country (one for the capital, and one other); this was reduced to one (USSR in Moscow "PILL BOX"... and USA had one in North Dakota)... Read this book and see why we need(ed) an ABM system...

Cold War History

A very informative reference book for those interested in the history of the Cold War era and the follow-on efforts that remain in effect. This book, along with Rings of Supersonic Steel co-authored by Mark Berhow and Mark Morgan, can answer many questions for not only historians, but also for those who might have lived near some of these Cold War facilities without understanding what was there, nor why they were there.

A great history book...

This book is amazing.Im glad i own it as it has so much history about cold war missiles and then some.Very imformative book if your looking to learn about american missile systems from way back in the 1950's through the present.