Introduction

Polish T-34's enforcing martial law in Poland
Public domain

The tanks of the Cold War were developed from vehicles held over from the Second World War. The United States and the Soviet Union, former Allies, were now rivals vying for the post war affairs of places such as Iran, Greece, Korea, and China.[1] Various experiments in new light, medium, and heavy tanks were initiated, but not acted upon. In such far flung places as Korea, Pakistan, Vietnam, and the Sinai Desert, American, British and Soviet tanks and training would see the test of combat, almost always by proxy. Although the anticipated tank battles in Germany and Europe never took place, a plethora of tanks were nonetheless improved upon or developed from what was being learned from tank battles around the globe.

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[1] Phillip L. Bolthe, “Post-World War II and Korea,” in Camp Colt to Desert Storm: The History of US Armored Forces, ed. George F. Hoffman and Don A. Starry, (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1999), 216.