 The positive image of the Waffen-SS indeed found a receptive audience during the Cold War.Senior Waffen-SS personnel were "not shy about suggesting that "they" had once organized and led a NATO-like army (and an elite one at that)", notes MacKenzie (emphasis in the original).John M. Steiner, in his 1975 work, points out that SS apologists, especially strongly represented in HIAG, stressed that they were the first to fight for Europe and Western civilisation against "Asiatic Communist hordes".