Back in the 1970s and early 1980s there was one word that haunted Western European chancelleries – decoupling. Decoupling was a gambit by the Soviet Union to separate the US nuclear arsenal from NATO and the defence of Europe. They did this by presenting the Americans with a dilemma. In 1977, Moscow deployed the triple nuclear warheaded SS20 into Eastern Europe. The SS20 had a range that could strike Western Europe, but not continental North America. The dilemma the SS20 posed by the Soviets to the Americans was a simple one: ‘would you, Mr President, commit nuclear suicide to defend Europe from the Red Army?’