World War III: 1989 Ideas?

Okay I tried twice to do a WWIII story on the board. I'm thinking about giving it another go and was going to try and actually give it a cause this time. Set in 1989 I've been looking for areas the Cold War can go hot. My first idea involves the USSR cracking down on the Eastern European revloution which leads to conflict with NATO, but are there other PODs that would be more plausible or intresting.

Thanks for the help.
 

CalBear

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In 1989?

Not very likely. By that date the Soviets had lost almost total control of the "satellites". Any attempt to go after them would likely have led to resistance from their own armed forces, which, by '89, were better than the Red Army unit for unit. The Red Army was so far behind on PM (and so low on cash) that most vehicles were barely mobile; troops training and quality was deplorable. Discipline was so bad that OFFICERS were selling weapons (up to & including a T-72) for cash.

The Wall fell in 1989 for one reason, Ivan was no longer able to hold it in place. Last possible date for a Soviet advance is late 1986 - Spring '87, after that the rot was so advanced that it was beyond repair.
 

King Thomas

Banned
A Soviet computer system mistakenly thinks that the USA is trying to nuke the USSR and the USSR generals are fooled and react.
 
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Have Grigory Romanov be elected by the Politburo instead of Gorbachev in 1985. I can't find where I read it, so take this with a couple of kilos of salt, but supposedly the opinion of the Politburo members of the time was that he would have gotten the USSR involved in a war with NATO in short order. Also, there's some suggestion he might have had the votes to get elected except for some dirty tricks by Gorbachev.

As mentioned by Calbear-who shot down an attempt by yours truly to have a war in exactly the same year-1989 is not going to be a very good year for the Soviets to have a war. If you want it to be a close fight-and why not?-my advice would be to either have the war earlier, or throw a major wrench into the western economy. Something like a series of revolutions in the Arab countries that cause the 1979 oil shock to last for years.
 
Soviet trying to regain control of Eastern Europe would result in an mess. As would a last attempt to rescue the USSR economy by attacking the Middle East and take their oil. The odds are against them of course but a much weaker US military might change the equation.
 
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