Building for Peace traces the U.S. Army's engineering construction activities in Europe, beginning immediately after World War II in 1945 and ending with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. In their fine organizational account that details the twists and turns of the Cold War's history, Robert P. Grathwol and Donita M. Moorhus describe the often less glamorous but nonetheless critical missions of conscientious Army engineers-military officers, civilians, and local-national employees and contractors-who worked tirelessly to prepare the physical infrastructure in Europe, the...

Most of the large wars between the end of World War II in 1945 and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 were fought in Asia and the Middle East. Europe, where no war was fought, ironically was the epicenter of the Cold War. The stakes were highest there for both sides as two fundamentally opposed ideologies and political systems confronted each other across the so-called Iron Curtain. Both sides saw war in Europe as an Armageddon that could bring total victory or catastrophic defeat, and both sides focused and shaped their strategies and military forces to fight that war. By the time the...

For more than four decades after the end of World War II in 1945, the security interests of the United States focused on tensions with the Soviet Union. The contest, which became known in 1948 as the Cold War, pitted two fundamentally opposed ideologies and political systems against one another across the so-called Iron Curtain in Europe. As tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union mounted, the United States increased its overseas military presence. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), established in 1949, created an alliance led by the United States for the mutual...