Download or read book A Cardboard Castle? written by Vojtech Mastny and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2005-01-01 with total page 794 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book to document, analyze, and interpret the history of the Warsaw Pact based on the archives of the alliance itself. As suggested by the title, the Soviet bloc military machine that held the West in awe for most of the Cold War does not appear from the inside as formidable as outsiders often believed, nor were its strengths and weaknesses the same at different times in its surprisingly long history, extending for almost half a century.