Soviet doctrine fully incorporated operations on an NBC battlefield. Here a soldier decontaminates a T-64 tank during a training exercise in 1987. (US National Archives)
In the 1984 film Red Dawn, starring Patrick Swayze, Soviet and Cuban paratroopers launch a surprise invasion of the continental United States, quickly conquering a country unprepared for war. The film spoke to deeply rooted American fears of the Soviet Union, their massed conventional and nuclear arsenals, and the United States’ inability to defend itself at one of the most perilous times of the Cold War. The other great fear in the public imagination, of course, was nuclear war and the previous year, during the annual Able Archer 83 command post exercise, mutual fear and distrust between the Superpowers had brought the world to the brink of Armageddon.