Radford plan

Radford Plan referred to by W. Arthur Radford (1896-1973), former Admiral and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , designed plan to reduce conventional US - Armed Forces in Europe .

The plan became known in 1956 and specifically envisaged a reduction in the American military in Europe by a third while at the same time strengthening the nuclear component in order to compensate for the conventional weakening. He met with criticism from the German federal government because a shift in priorities to nuclear weapons means an additional threat to German territory. According to the concept of NATO for the defense of Western Europe at the time, this was only planned on the Rhine ; most of the Federal Republic was a “ delay zone” in which the massive use of tactical nuclear weapons was planned. The concept of forward defense could come into force until the early 1960s because it more conventional forces were required and are only waiting had until the Bundeswehr its target of 500,000 soldiers and 12 Army - divisions had reached.

literature

• Conscription: mobilization . In: Der Spiegel . No. 32 , 1961 ( online ).
• Atomic bombs for Adenauer . In: Berliner Zeitung , September 21, 1996
• Frank Nägler (Ed.): The Bundeswehr 1955 to 2005 - Flashbacks, Insights, Perspectives . Munich 2007
• Christian Tuschhoff: Germany, nuclear weapons and NATO 1949–1967 . Baden-Baden 2002.