The Scariest Year

Thirty years ago the world came uncomfortably close to Armageddon.

Some believe that at no time since the Cuban Missile Crisis have we perched so precariously close to the nuclear abyss. Yet even today, the story is little known...

The 1980s arrived with something of a bang, or rather with a sorrowful whimper that has yet to be extinguished. Between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, 1979, Soviet troops entered Afghanistan in force to instigate a coup and sustain Soviet influence in that failing Central Asian state. Just over a month prior, the US Embassy in neighboring Iran had been overrun and 52 American hostages were taken. International tension was focused on the Middle East and Central Asia; many wondered if the US and the Soviet Union might be headed for a geopolitical showdown in the Persian Gulf.*