For 40 years following the end of World War II, the Western democratic governments and the Eastern Bloc Communist powers were locked in the ideological, political, and economic struggle of the Cold War. The United States and the Soviet Union developed missile systems capable of delivering conventional and nuclear explosives against airborne enemy bomber formations, as well as retaliatory nuclear payloads against ground targets on distant continents. The missile systems therefore served both defensive and offensive functions. This book examines these roles, and provides a detailed overview of the fixed-launch-site strategic missile systems of the United States
