What Happened to the Battleship 1945 to the Present

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This book "tells the story of the slow demise of the world's battleships. It examines the decisions made by the major world powers after the War, and their aspirations to retain battleships in their navies, despite financial stringency, and it places the history and role of battleships in their geo-political context, centered around the Cold War and the need for the West to face down an aggressive Soviet Union. It also examines the impact on battleships of new technological developments, notably the atom bomb and the guided missile. Detailed histories of the ships' postwar careers focus particularly on those of the Royal Navy, and on United States battleship operations in Korea, Vietnam and the Gulf War, as well as the deterrent role played by battleships for NATO from the 1950s to the 1990s. Finally, it brings the story up to date by documenting the preservation as museum ships of the eight dreadnoughts which still exist today in the United States."--Dust jacket.