When Muslim fundamentalists blow up a key Soviet oil complex, making an currently critical oil shortage calamitous, the Russians physique they will need to take things into their own hands. They plan to seize the Persian Gulf, and more ambitiously, to neutralize NATO. Hence begins Red Storm, an audacious gamble that uses diplomatic maneuver to cloak a crash military services build-up. When Soviet tanks start to move, the West is certainly caught off guard. What appears like a thrust turns into an all-out shooting war, possibly the climactic battle for control of the world.