“As long as capitalism and socialism exist, we cannot live in peace. In the end, one or the other will triumph—a funeral dirge will be sung over the Soviet Republic or over world capitalism.” –V.I. Lenin. If the “balloon had gone up” in Cold War Europe during the 1980s, one of the hotter spots of that hell would have been the Fulda Gap. Communist East Germany’s western border projected a salient that was pointed directly at this key geographic feature of West Germany. If offered the Soviet and Warsaw Pact forces the shortest and most direct route through West Germany and the Rhine River. Defending here were the bulk of the US forces committed to NATO. How much of a fight that could be waged here would in large measure determine whether the Communist of Free World would prevail in this very hot and dangerous war. —description from the publisher