Need to Know Basis: The PCs

[M-Type]

As the title might suggest, when the players are starting out in (v1) Escape from Kalisz, what information would they know? They'd know about the Summer 2000 push, because they just lived that. In Black Madonna it mentions the chance of some PCs being veterans of the Battle of Czestochowa, but I'm talking in a larger scale.

What would they know about CONUS, the war, the 'big picture'. I would hope they knew CONUS got nuked, but then it hit me that it'd be a bit of a downer for morale. Or it could make them fight harder...

It'd be something else when they finally pull into Norfolk and all they're greeted by is ruins and a pall of smoke hanging over the continent. Where'd the US of A go?

How have you spun this in your games?