GERMANY: G.I. Watch on a Deadly Border

Even when hopes for detente have been high—and nowadays they are waning—tensions between East and West have remained all too tangible along the border between the two Germanies. For more than a generation, elite units of NATO and Warsaw Pact forces, the world's two most powerful war machines, have faced each other across this heavily guarded 836-mile frontier. To signal clearly that it remains determined to defend Western Europe, even in the face of a massive Warsaw Pact arms and troop buildup, the U.S. next year plans to base an additional 3,800-man...

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