The best novels that deal with the Cold War from a military-based fictional standpoint are:

Red Storm Rising, by Tom Clancy

The Third World War, by Sir John Hackett

Team Yankee, by Harold Coyle

Red Army, by Ralph Peters

Today is February 8, 1984. Yesterday Armed Forces Radio announced talks between the American and Russian delegation in Paris have broken down. You huddle in your M577 command track, hoping a solution will be found at the last minute.

You don't want war, but you've prepared these past weeks to fight. Your soldiers are ready.

Your fears are confirmed as you hear the garbled commands coming over the battalion command net:

"APPROACHING ENEMY TANKS...ROUGHLY FIVE HUNDRED, FIVE-ZERO-ZERO, REPEAT, FIVE HUNDRED TANKS UP FRONT..."

By now, you realize it's time to play hardball: The Russians are coming.

This site offers a broad historical and strategic outlook on military and cultural issues of the war that never was: the Cold War.