The Second Cold War

CHAPTER 10 · 1979–1985 · The Cold War, 1945–1991

1979 breaks the decade in half. Iran’s revolution removes the West’s Gulf policeman without adding a Soviet client — the first great defection from both blocs at once (watch Iran turn parchment). Nicaragua’s Sandinistas topple a forty-year US client dynasty. And on Christmas Eve, Soviet airborne troops land in Kabul — follow the two arrows — storm the palace, shoot the (already communist!) president, and install a more obedient one. The Politburo intends a quick stabilization of a client regime devouring itself; it gets nine years, somewhere between half a million and two million Afghan dead (

The turn: Able Archer 83, 2–11 November 1983.

This chapter is one scene of an interactive atlas: the map repaints as the dates advance, campaigns draw themselves, and every chapter argues its causes and consequences — then a field exam asks you to prove it on the map.