Command and Control

Perhaps the most influential bestseller of the year was The Third World War: August 1985, a novel written by a retired British officer, General Sir John Hackett. It offered a compelling, realistic account of a full-scale war between NATO and the Soviet bloc. After a long series of European tank battles, the British cities of Birmingham and Wolverhampton are incinerated by a Soviet nuclear strike. The Russian city of Minsk is hit by nuclear weapons in retaliation, and the shock of its destruction causes the swift collapse of the Soviet Union. The moral of the story was clear: the United States and its allies needed to increase their military spending. “In the last few years before the outbreak of war the West began to wake up to the danger it faced,” Hackett wrote, “and in the time available did just enough in repair of its neglected defenses to enable it, by a small margin, to survive.” Ronald Reagan later called The Third World War an unusually important book. And it helped to launch a new literary genre, the techno-thriller, in which military heroism was celebrated, the intricate details of weaponry played a central role in the narrative, and Cold War victories were achieved through the proper application of force.

On television, The Waltons, a long-running drama about an ordinary family’s struggles during the Great Depression, was facing cancellation. Instead of worrying about how the show’s young protagonist, John-Boy, would overcome adversity, American viewers were now far more interested in who’d shot J.R., the wealthy lead character of a new series, Dallas. Other family dramas about the rich and dysfunctional soon followed: Dynasty, Falcon Crest, The Colbys. Situation comedies dealing with topical or working-class issues — like M*A*S*H, Maude, Sanford and Son, All in the Family — were relics of a different era. In Hollywood, the year 1980 marked the end of the highly personal, director-driven filmmaking of the previous decade. Aside from Martin Scorsese’s Raging Bull and Robert Redford’s Ordinary People, due to open on September 19, the most notable movies were big-budget comedies, action pictures, and sequels like Smokey and the Bandit II.

The popular music of a historical moment can be more memorable and evocative than its books, politics, or films. A number of songs released in 1980 had the ability to worm their way into your brain and resist all attempts to dislodge them: “Do That to Me One More Time,” by Captain & Tennille; “You May Be Right,” by Billy Joel; “Sailing” and “Ride Like the Wind,” by Christopher Cross. Disco was finally dead, its fate sealed by the closing of the nightclub Studio 54 and the opening of Can’t Stop the Music, a movie starring the Village People. Punk was dead, too, and taking its place was the lighter, dance-oriented New Wave of Devo, The Police, The B-52’s, and Talking Heads. The hard rock of The Rolling Stones had given way to the softer pop sounds of “Emotional Rescue.” Led Zeppelin broke up, transforming Van Halen into America’s favorite heavy metal band. Turning the radio dial, on almost every FM station, you could hear rough edges becoming smooth. Outlaw country no longer threatened the Nashville establishment. It had fully entered the mainstream, with Willie Nelson’s hit “On the Road Again” and Waylon Jennings’s “Theme from the Dukes of Hazzard.” Bob Dylan now refused to sing any of his old songs. Born again and on the road, he played only gospel. John Lennon was in New York City, recording a new album for the first time in years and looking forward, in a few weeks, to his fortieth birthday. “Life begins at forty,” Lennon told an interviewer. “It’s like: Wow! what’s going to happen next?”