Perhaps. I have read that the Soviets were expected to expect an unspoken agreement with the US that direct attacks on the territory of the other party was out of bounds. It's hard to say how attached to this idea the senior leadership would have been. It's equally hard to say whether or not they would have viewed escalation to nuclear action as a response to conventional attacks on the Kola Peninsula as being advantageous to the Soviet war effort. As everyone here knows, Soviet doctrine held that there were no natural firebreaks between various levels of escalation. Any use of nuclear weapons might lead to an all-out exchange. Twilight: 2000 is based on a very different premise. Where reality might actually have shaken out is a tough call to make.
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“We’re not innovating. We’re selectively imitating.” June Bernstein, Acting President of the University of Arizona in Tucson, November 15, 1998.
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