YMMV / The Third World War

• Harsher in Hindsight: The author at one point dismisses those arguing for defense spending cuts as "useful fools" unknowingly doing the bidding of the Soviet Union. Come over a decade later, after the fall of the Soviet Union, and declassified and leaked documents would come to show that Soviet intelligence services actually were secretly funding many left-wing peace activists and anti-nuclear organizations in the West, exploiting those people's sincere desire for peace, economic development, or diplomatic solutions in order to weaken their enemies' militaries.
  • This is especially harsher in light of recent allegations in America of Russian interference in American political systems.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In the first book, Jimmy Carter serves two full terms. The second implies Ronald Reagan stood down after one term.
  • Iran is still ruled by the Pahlavi monarchy, implying that the Iranian Revolution either never happened or failed.
  • It's stated in the first book that Channel 4 is not created because of the increase in defence spending. By the second book, it was being created. Considering what's on C4 at the moment, this line gets funnier all the time.
• Moral Event Horizon and Shoot the Dog: The Soviets, getting thrown back in West Germany, decide to try and scare NATO to the negotiating table by nuking Birmingham, close enough to a summit in London for the attack to be seen from there, stating that further strikes will follow unless they agree to talks. The NATO leaders decide the only way they're going to avoid a complete collapse of public morale is to nuke Minsk back.
  • The Soviets stop people leaving Minsk. The British stop rescuers from entering the centre of the city- it can be inferred, though, that since there's unlikely to be any more survivors there, there was no point in rescue workers risking their lives when others needed help.
• Nightmare Fuel: A lot of the combat is described in pretty graphic detail, and that's before the nukes start flying in Chapter 25.