The Armed Forces of the Soviet State; A Soviet View (Soviet Military Thought No. 12)

viii, 349, [3] pages. Footnotes. The cover has some wear and soiling. Stamp on fep. This was translated and published under the auspices of the United States Air Force. American Editor's Comments. Andrei Antonovich Grechko (17 October [O.S. 4 October] 1903 26 April 1976) was a Soviet military commander and Marshal of the Soviet Union during the Cold War. He served as the Soviet minister of defence from 1967 to 1976. Grechko served in the Red Army cavalry during the Russian Civil War. After graduating from the Frunze Military Academy, he took part in the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939. Grechko was a fresh graduate of the Voroshilov Military Academy when Axis forces invaded the Soviet Union. He held a succession of cavalry and army commands afterwards and saw action in the Caucasus, Ukraine and Central Europe. After the war, Grechko commanded the Kiev Military District. In 1953, he was appointed commander-in-chief of Soviet Forces in East Germany, and led the suppression of the East German uprising. In 1955, he was named a Marshal of the Soviet Union. In 1957, he became commander-in-chief of the Soviet Ground Forces, and three years later he also became the commander of the Warsaw Pact forces. In 1967, Grechko was appointed Minister of Defence, and oversaw the subsequent Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia and violent border clashes with China. He helped modernize the Soviet Army. He was a defender of the first strike nuclear strategy, and reluctantly supported Brezhnev's détente with the United States and the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks. The contents address the Birth of the Red Army out of the October Revolution; Guarding Socialism, Military Organization and Readiness. Character of the Soviet Armed Forces, Scientific-Technological Progress and the Armed Forces. Morale of the Socialist Army, Officer Cadres of the Armed Forces, Command and Control, Training and Education, Soviet Military Science and Military Art, Party-Political Work in the Armed Forces, Military Cooperation of Armies of Socialist States, and Conclusion. Presumed First Edition, First printing thus.…