There are so many period tutorials about how to survive nuclear impact and the designation of a fallout room, but nothing seems to come after that. Has any government publicized a strategy for repairing a nation after armageddon? Did the US government, for example, have a procedure for how to minimize losses and get things back together?

Though printed in 1977, this manual for care and maintenance of the issued M16 rifle was issued to the OP at Fort Jackson South Carolina in August of 1980

Two Army Paratroopers (OP on right) wearing the first issued “chocolate chip “ desert camouflage in 1981. We were staged at Fort Bragg North Carolina in preparation to deploy to Egypt to participate in operation Bright Star. I still have the huge Bowie Knife seen in my right hand. At 62 years old, both soldiers in this picture are still friends to this day. We met when we got into a serious fistfight on his first day in the unit and have been friends ever since. A common military occurrence in those days.

Want to learn more from non/less biased perspective, not sure if that's possible in this context. But if you know any books that can explain different aspects of Cold War from academic standpoint that are not full-on textbooks, please tell me!

Lots of things going on in this photo taken in Stuttgart West Germany. 🇩🇪 The Freedom Bird poster was very common for soldiers stationed overseas and was used to count down the days until they would fly back home to the USA. The soldier (op) is holding a German paratrooper knife which was gravity fed and very cool. The hard to see green military watch band with the Casio digital watch was very popular with soldiers of the time.

Ingoring the Bay of Pigs Invasion, Cuban Missile Crisis & the Iranian Contra Scandal.

When is Latin America events ever talked about in the Context of the Cold War?

I understand in the eastern block, Ukraine, Poland, Romania, etc were a thing unlike countries in the Baltics.

Did these countries have any say in anything that happened in their territory or did the USSR have full control?

Why did Romania have more autonomy than other countries in the eastern bloc?

Was the primary handgun being issued to US spies/agents the M1911? I cannot image the pistols were stored in the same holsters that were used during Vietnam (the big black leather holsters). Was there a more incognito holster that was issued for the 1911 and the 22 LR silenced pistol?