text: By Dawn's Early Light is an HBO original movie, first aired in 1990. It is based on the 1983 novel Trinity's Child, written by William Prochnau.
  Plot
  In 1991, dissident officials in the Soviet Union launch a nuclear missile at Donetsk from a site in NATO member Turkey. Soviet automated defense systems, believing that a NATO attack is in progress, execute a measured launch of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) at the United States. After Donetsk is destroyed, Strategic Air Command (SAC) scrambles its forces and SAC Commander General Renning urges the President to authorize a large-scale counterattack. The Soviet leader explains the dissidents' actions to the President. He asks the United States to stand down, citing the two nations' improving relations, but is willing to accept a US counterstrike comparable to the Soviet strike, costing each side six to nine million people. If the US launches an all-out attack, however, the Soviets will respond in kind.