Fans pick 100 books like The War That Never Was

This is the brass ring of Cold War turns Hot military fiction. I loved what Tom Clancy put down on paper back in 1986 and truly believe that without this book, none of the others on this list would have been written. I loved the depth and detail that Clancy digs into with regard to operational planning as well as tactical combat operations. 

I can’t compliment him enough on his easy explanation of complex systems and operations. If you like “rivet counting” this book is going to blow your mind. As a former Russian linguist for the Navy, I’m impressed with Clancy’s understanding of Soviet politics and strategy. As a self taught civilian, he knocks it out of the park.

I was skeptical of this novel, as I felt it was based on a flawed premise. The idea of a NATO vs. Soviet Engagement in the 90s was an open-and-shut case of NATO ass-whipping. By the 90s, the Soviet Machine was starting the downward spiral that we see fighting in Ukraine today. TK erased my doubts in the first few pages. I thought, “Brilliant!” and I was hooked.

There are twists in this book that you just don’t see coming. And when they hit you, it’s like a bucket of cold water. Just shocking. I can’t recommend this book enough. If you like Military Fiction, Cold War Goes Hot, or just Alternate History in general, this is a must-read!

I really enjoyed how Bart Gauvin and Joel Radunzel were able to collaborate in this “Video Game to Novel” adventure. Bart is an amazing scenario designer for “Command: Modern Operations,” a fantastic computer war game, so when he teamed up with Joel, it was a dream come true. 

I love how many of the battles in the book can be played as scenarios in the game (Including a major air battle over Northern Norway!). It’s a unique experience that I haven’t run into before, and it’s a lot of fun. Even outside of the video game, the story is well put together. I love the depth of the characters and their relationships. I was especially appreciative of the slow burn of the buildup to the action.  

When writing Alternate History, authors are often challenged between world-building and character-building. It is difficult to do both well. Colin Salt’s novel approach (and I don’t know if that pun was intended or not, TBH) pays off well, where he clearly divides his book into a deep character dive, with a sprinkling of world-building, followed by a riveting war thriller.

I found the sub-title a bit dubious, but this book really is about love, mystery, and war, and each aspect is well told. In my experience, that combination is very rare. Most authors who can write a badass battle scene tend to embarrass themselves when they try to incorporate a true love story. But Colin easily slides between the two. The Mystery was fun, and I 100% didn’t see it coming.

So some of you are sitting there thinking “Perry who?” well imagine him as the West German (it was first published in 1961) alternative to our Flash Gordon.

In book number one, Rhodan and his crew take off and make the first moon landing, their mission is disrupted by a crashed spacecraft. This is where they meet the Arkons, a sort of tall, large-headed alien with silver eyes, or hair, or both… it’s been a long time so don’t hold me to any of the details!

So these aliens from a super-intelligent species (Rhodan later in the series uses a device similar to the one in Battlefield Earth to increase his intelligence and psionic powers above even that of the Arkons) assist Rohdan in ending the cold war on Earth and uniting the planet.

The series runs for 126 books, mostly novellas, it’s typical Flash Gordon when it’s action time,… show more.

It’s hard to overstate just how influential Marc Trachtenberg’s A Constructed Peace, and really all of his writing, has been on my thinking. I constantly return to its pages and find fresh insights each time. I’m drawn in by the writing style, but the substance is even more impressive. The book—examining British, French, Soviet, West German, and U.S. policy—was what first opened my eyes to the centrality of Germany and debates on nuclear control in the origins and evolution of the Cold War. U.S. efforts to offset the Soviet challenge and reduce the U.S. continental commitment by reviving West Germany and then essentially providing it with nuclear weapons contributed to some of the Cold War’s most dangerous crises.

At the end of the Cold War in 1991, an Italian underground political action structure was revealed under the name Gladio (sword) to which the Strategy of Tension was traced.

That strategy successfully kept the powerful Communist Party of Italy out of the government by bomb attacks and assassinations.

This book offers the details of identical underground structures for all NATO member states, highlighting the dramatic interventions they undertook to keep the Cold War ideology alive. 

This well-researched book, using prime sources, is an objective and important history. It explains why Washington failed to forge a new European security order in working with Moscow at the end of the “first” Cold War.

Sarotte examines the question as to why Mikhail Gorbachev appeared to be promised by then-US Secretary of State James Baker (and other Western officials) that NATO membership would not expand beyond East Germany at the time of German unification. Just as importantly, Sarotte’s book examines why the US-proposed “Partnership for Peace”―which could have helped to establish a new system of security for eastern European states with Russian cooperation, in my view―was not pursued.

Instead, as I had argued in Dangerous Crossroads, Clinton opted to pursue the NATO “Self-Limitation”  approach (no troops, no nuclear weapons), knowing full well that both Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin had warned that NATO’s expansion without strong Russian input… show more.

Another chronological resume of events in the more recent history of Turkey (since the end of the Cold War), this book is essential reading for anyone who is interested in Turkey.

What made me first interested in this book was its title, Angry Nation, which I thought was very apt to describe the Turkish nation.

Even though this book is about the contemporary history of Turkey in general, its sections on the Kurdish war in the 1990s and war and peace in Kurdistan discuss the state’s actions towards Kurds.

After all, the history of contemporary Turkey would not be complete without talking about its Kurdish and other non-Turkish citizens. 

Kaplan’s book captured the mindset of the Cold Warriors and how the concept of a nuclear holocaust became accepted. Brilliantly researched and written with a dispassionate eye, it remains one of the most insightful accounts of the nuclear weapons race and how it was exploited by the military to build their own empires. It was a great influence on my film Baiting the Bear about General Curtis 'Bomb them back to the Stone Age’ Lemay that I made for BBC's Timewatch in 1996. I haven’t yet read Kaplan’s latest book, The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War, which looks like a development of Wizards with new declassified material.