I was basing the date of the article on the bibliography on the last page which listed The Third World War, August 1985. I just realized my mistake, though. The date is part of the title of the book. I agree, the late 70s were the period of greatest vulnerabilty for NATO. The US had not yet commenced the Reagan buildup, morale was at a low ebb due to Viet Nam, and, of course, the labor unrest in Poland had not disclosed the first weakness in the Warsaw Pact alliance. Plus, oil and gas prices, which were in essence financing the entire Soviet military machine, had not yet collapsed. Any scenario recreating a Soviet invasion at that point would be very interesting. The losses on both sides would have been staggering but the outcome questionable. Another tidbit, which came out in the late 80s, when it didn't matter any more, was the lack of standardization of weaponry among the NATO forces which meant the there was only enough ammunition stockpiled to sustain operations for no more than 30 days. The fighting would have been short and bloody, the outcome of which would have been decided within the first 2 weeks.