Oblivia
Damn those socialists for, err, not wasting taxpayers' money on a Cold War project that history proves we didn't need...
Err, if the West had disarmed in the '60s, do you really think you would be speaking English instead of Russian? The test of a reaally good weapon system is one that is so superior that you never have to use it. And so the reason the USSR did not start WWIII was because of superior Western weaponry, and the demonstration of that superiority in the two great Israeli wars.
In the Six Day War Israel only had Super Shermans, and yet they went through the Russian T34s like a knife through butter. In the Yom Kippur War Israel had M-60 Pattons and British Centurians, and they went through the thousands of Russian T55s and T62s like a knife through butter. Check the Valley of Tears, where a small Israeli force knocked out 500 Syrian tanks.
So the pivotal event that prevented the Russians rolling across Germany and starting WWIII, was the decimation of all its hardware in the Israeli wars. If that scale of destruction could happen in the Near East, it could certainly happen in Europe.
Silver