My father, who was the senior Canadian officer in NATO Headquarters in Fontainebleau in the 1950s tells the story about the year (55-56 I guess) the Germans were first allowed into the strategy sessions of NATO. It happened that their first appearance coincided with one of the standard war gaming exercises that the Allies were working through. They were horrified to discover that the basic working assumption was that Germany would be flattened by nuclear weapons to prevent the Russians crossing the Rhine. The war game was modified the next year so the Germans could participate somewhat more happily.

yours, Peter T.