In this book the players are the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. When Moslem fundamentalists blow up a key Soviet oil complex, making an already critical oil shortage calamitous, the Soviets decide they have no choice. To survive, they must seize the oil in the Persian Gulf; to seize the oil, they must find a way to keep NATO from retaliating. And they find it: Red Storm, an audacious, four-month master plan of elaborate diplomatic trickery and crash military buildup designed to keep the West off balance.