About the Book
This is the first book to document, analyze, and interpret the history of the Warsaw Pact based on the archives of the alliance itself. As suggested by the title, the Soviet bloc military machine that held the West in awe for most of the Cold War does not appear from the inside as formidable as outsiders often believed, nor were its strengths and weaknesses the same at different times in its surprisingly long history, extending for almost half a century. The introductory study by Mastny assesses the controversial origins of the "superfluous" alliance, its subsequent search for a purpose, its crisis and consolidation despite congenital weaknesses, as well as its unexpected demise. Most of the 193 documents included in the book were top secret and have only recently been obtained from Eastern European archives by the PHP project. The majority of the documents were translated specifically for this volume and have never appeared in English before. The introductory remarks to individual documents by co-editor Byrne explain the particular significance of each item. A chronology of the main events in the history of the Warsaw Pact, a list of its leading officials, a selective multilingual bibliography, and an analytical index add to the importance of a publication that sets the new standard as a reference work on the subject and facilitate its use by both students and general readers.
Table of Contents:
Editors’ Preface Introductory Essay by Vojtech Mastny Acronyms and Abbreviations Chronology of Events The Documents Document No. 1: The Warsaw Treaty, May 14, 1955 Document No. 2: Statute of the Warsaw Treaty Unified Command, September 7, 1955 Document No. 3: Imre Nagy Telegram to Diplomatic Missions in Budapest Declaring Hungary’s Neutrality, November 1, 1956 Document No. 4: Gen. Jan Drzewiecki’s Critique of the Statute of the Unified Command, November 3, 1956 Document No. 5: Polish Memorandum on Reform of the Warsaw Pact, January 10, 1957 Document No. 6: Gen. Drzewiecki Interview regarding Memorandum on Reform of the Warsaw Pact, May 8, 1997 Document No. 7: Soviet Directives to the Czechoslovak Army on Operational and Combat Preparations, September 25, 1957 Document No. 8: Draft of a Warsaw Pact-NATO Non-aggression Treaty, May 24, 1958 Document No. 9: Marshal Ivan Konev Analysis of a Czechoslovak Army Operational Exercise, March 31-April 7, 1959 Document No. 10: Conclusions from the Operational Exercise of the Czechoslovak Army, March 31–April 7, 1959 Document No. 11: East German Description of a West German Plan for the Occupation of the GDR, July 29, 1959 Document No. 12: Warsaw Pact Views of NATO’s Plans and Capabilities, April 28, 1960 Document No. 13: The Soviet-Albanian Dispute, March 22-28, 1961 Document No. 14: Political Consultative Committee Resolution on the Restructuring and Modernization of Warsaw Pact Forces, March 29, 1961 Document No. 15: The Soviet Conception of Czechoslovakia’s Role in a European War, April 1961 Document No. 16: Speech by Marshal Malinovskii Describing the Need for Warsaw Pact Offensive Operations, May 1961 Document No. 17: Czechoslovak Politburo Resolution on Mobilization Readiness with Respect to the Berlin Question, July 25, 1961 Document No. 18: Joint Declaration of the Warsaw Treaty States on the Berlin Wall, August 13, 1961 Document No. 19: Resolution by the Czechoslovak Party Military Defense Commission on the Introduction of Emergency Measures, September 14, 1961 Document No. 20: The “Buria” Exercise Preparing for an Advance into Western Europe, September 28-October 10, 1963 Document No. 21: Organizational Principles of the Czechoslovak Army, November 22, 1962 Document No. 22: The “Mazowsze” Exercise for Nuclear War and Interview with Gen. Tuczapski on Soviet Bloc Planning of Exercises, 1963-1964 Document No. 23: Polish Command Post Exercise Rehearsing an Advance to Northern Germany, Low Countries, and Denmark, June 14, 1963 Document No. 24: Mongolian Request for Admission to the Warsaw Pact, July 15, 1963 Document No. 25: Polish Foreign Ministry Memorandum regarding Possible Mongolian Accession to the Warsaw Treaty, July 20, 1963 Document No. 26: Czechoslovak Drafts of Orders and Appeals to be Issued in Occupied Western European Territories, June 29, 1964 Document No. 27: Warsaw Pact War Plan for the Czechoslovak Front, October 14, 1964 Document No. 28: Warsaw Pact Intelligence on NATO’s Strategy and Combat Readiness, 1965 Document No. 29: Albanian Note to the Political Consultative Committee, January 15, 1965 Document No. 30: Memorandum of Discussion at Political Consultative Committee Meeting in Warsaw, January 20, 1965 Document No. 31: Plan for Hungarian Command-Staff War Game, May 1965 Document No. 32: Transcript of Ceausescu--Deng Conversation, July 25, 1965 Document No. 33: Hungarian Proposals for Reform of the Warsaw Pact, January 18-19, 1966 Document No. 34: Polish Proposals for Reform of the Warsaw Pact, January 21 & 26, 1966 Document No 35: Czechoslovak Proposal for Reform of the Warsaw Pact, February 1966 Document No. 36: Statement by the Romanian Chief of Staff on Reform of the Warsaw Pact, February 4-9, 1966 Document No. 37: Summary of Discussion at Conference of Warsaw Treaty Deputy Foreign Ministers, February 17, 1966 Document No. 38: Study of Special Features of a Surprise Outbreak of War Prepared for the Hungarian ....
About the Author :
Malcolm Byrne is Director of Research at the National Security Archive where he coordinates a program involving Russian and East European scholars in documentary research, conference preparation and publications relating to the Cold War.
Vojtech Mastny is a Senior Fellow at the National Security Archive, where he coordinates the Parallel History Project on NATO and the Warsaw Pact (PHP).
Review :
"By far the most ambitious and integral project in the burgeoning field of Cold War history has been the Parallel History Project on NATO and the Warsaw Pact, directed by Mastny. This is its early culmination, a massive volume... Mastny's extended introductory essay does more than survey the history."
"An impressively extensive collection of original documents and transcripts of the Warsaw Pact from its beginning in 1955 to its dissolution in 1991. The two main themes in the documents is that the Pact seemed to have no intention of a preemptive attack on Western Europe. The other is that the Pact was not all as united as outside observers believed. This is a great book for historians and for anyone else who is interested in this subject."
