 The story begins in 1972, ten years after a nuclear war between the U.S. and the Soviets, which was precipitated by the Cuban Missile Crisis.Washington, D.C., New York, Omaha, San Diego, Miami, and other U.S. cities, principally those surrounding military bases, have either been destroyed, damaged, or rendered uninhabitable by Soviet nuclear attacks.Philadelphia is now the capital of the United States, and although the Mexican-born President George W. Romney is nominally in office, the U.S. is effectively under martial law.