Going Nuclear, but How? The Netherlands Army and Tactical Nuclear Warfare in Europe, 1953–1968

What is it about?

This article analyzes – based on previously unused archives – how the Dutch army, as an army of a smaller NATO-member state, adapted step by step to the nuclearization of land warfare in the period 1953 to 1968. Which role were the tactical nuclear weapons assigned in the war plans? But also: how realistic would these plans have been, given the influence of (inter)national political developments, moral and psychologic aspects, and military-technical and military-tactical issues?

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