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Originally Posted by JBodnar39
If Russia would have attacked into W Germany during the 1970's when the US conventional forces were in such a shambles and that dolt Jimmy Carter was President, the Russians would have won. At the time our conventional forces couldn't have stopped them and there is no way that Carter would have authorized the use of tactical nukes.
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Nor should he have, as it would have lead to the use of strategic nukes by both sides and the destuction of both nations in a rather complete manner. No victory in ashes, I think most, if not all leaders from the 70s onward would have baulked at a nuclear release in the event of their conventional Forces being overwhlemed. Afterall, I'd take humiliation and a severe discreditation over the death of most of the civilian population of my country any day.
And as for conventional warfare, it would depend on the goals of both sides in the conflict. If the USSR simply aimed to overrun West Germany and ignore the rest of Europe, they may well have been able to do it, albeit with some rather sickening casualty rates, but I don't think they would have been able to keep up their advance across the rest of Europe. Similarly, NATO would have had a reasonable chance of being able to delay the Warsaw Pact's advance long enough for reinforcements to arrive, in which case they probably could have stopped or pushed them back into East Germany.
Pretty much, the USSR might have been able to seize West Germany and call that a victory, and NATO might have been able to stop their advance or turn them back and call that a victory, but I seriously doubt either side would have tried to completely overrun the other.