Headscratchers / Invasion U.S.A. (1985)

• 1985: the period of glasnost and perestroika, and the signs of Soviet Union's final collapse are already in the air. What does the politburo hope to achieve with a wide-scale terror attack on the US that is blatantly led by Soviet agents and executed by communist mercenaries?
  • The film may have been filmed even before Gorbachev became premier, let alone those policies started. In any case, hardline anti-communists remained paranoid of the USSR right to the end. However, it's fair to say the USSR wouldn't have so blatantly attacked the US knowing it would lead to nuclear holocaust.
    • But the thing is, the Soviets are NOT advertising that they're leading the terrorist attacks. The whole reason Rostov has recruited his army from various European and South American Marxist terrorist groups is so the Soviets can have culpable deniability when those groups strike. The idea is to make Americans paranoid and afraid that multiple non-state terrorist groups are attacking them through various means at the same time and cause a breakdown in society and rule of law. Who would the U.S. nuke then, the Cubans? The East Germans? The Soviets would be suspected as the masterminds, of course, but the goal is to have the U.S. collapse into disorder and be unable to do anything about it.
    • Also, keep in mind there wasn't just hardline anti-communists in the 1980s. In the final months of the Soviet Union's existence, their hardliners attempted a coup to stop the collapse of the country, so there were plenty of Soviets who still believed they'd win the Cold War all the way until the end.