By Dawn's Early Light

By Dawn’s Early Light (AKA The Grand Tour) is an HBO Original Movie, aired in 1990 and set in 1991. It is based on the 1983 novel Trinity's Child, written by William Prochnau. The film is one of the last to depict the events of a fictional World War III before the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.

Plot

Renegade Soviet military officers steal a nuclear missile, launching it at the Soviet city of Donetsk, from Turkey. Soviet defense systems, believing a NATO attack is in progress, order an immediate launch of ICBMs and SLBMs at the United States.

Moments after the Soviet attack is launched, the President of the United States receives a teleprinter message in English at the White House Situation Room (apparently translated and relayed by the Pentagon-NMCC MOLINK team staffing the actual Moscow-Washington hotline fax machine then in use) in which the Soviet leader informs him of the response as well as discovery that the first missile was launched by renegades. He says the Soviet Union is willing to absorb a proportionate US counterstrike that would kill between six and nine million people although the Soviets will retaliate for any larger counterattack, making all-out nuclear exchange likely. To add to the turmoil, China launches its own strike against the Soviets, in accordance with a treaty with the United States.