Book review: Facing the Bear: Scotland and the Cold War, by Trevor Royle

As the subtitle says, this book offers a Scottish perspective on the East/West face-off that lasted 44 years, but it is much more than that, with a wealth of detail illuminating features of the Cold War that many might be unaware of. Facing the Bear projects a big picture, tracing the chronology and strategies of the war across the UK and beyond, and it is thematic, too. Its 11 chapters and epilogue include the role of Scottish National Servicemen and regiments in Germany and in Korea, when the Cold War became “hot” in 1950. It follows the development and obsolescence of V-bombers and sweptwing fighter aircraft from the 1940s to the 1980s, the impact of the Holy Loch base for US submarines on the local community, and the ebb and flow of the war on the Scottish economy. All this is illustrated with delightful vignettes such as the story of the Dunoon schoolboy George Robertson, who demonstrated against the presence of US submarines at Holy Loch in 1961, then became Secretary General of NATO 38 years later.