Cold War
Sweden kept the non-alignment policy as well as the conscription-based army. The Swedish Air Force became one of the world's most prominent thanks to SAAB and other contractors. During this time a concept of "total defence" was developed to counter the feared full-scale invasion by the Soviet Union. This included, for example; bomb shelters in all new big buildings, bridges with prepared places for explosives and a pre-planned war-placement for almost every single citizen. During this time the "total defence system" could mobilize up to one million people to the military alone. This included around 100,000 Home Guard troops that could be mobilized within hours to protect the general mobilization, which could take up to two weeks to reach completion.
Read more about this topic: Military History Of Sweden
Famous quotes containing the words cold war, cold and/or war:
“The Cold War isn’t thawing; it is burning with a deadly heat. Communism isn’t sleeping; it is, as always, plotting, scheming, working, fighting.”
—Richard M. Nixon (1913–1995)
“The cold wet winds ever blowing,
And the shadowy hazel grove
Where mouse-grey waters are flowing,
Threaten the head that I love.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“... when there is a war the years are longer that is to say the days are longer the months are longer the years are much longer but the weeks are shorter that is what makes a war.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)