We really thought we might die.

This week saw the 70th anniversary of the dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. But anyone who grew up over the ensuing four decades feared that it would happen again. Though Ronald Reagan had other ideas. History is already being kinder to Reagan. When he was President, he was widely dismissed as either a reckless warmongerer or a semi-senile old fool. His critics accused him of engaging in an insane arms race with the Soviet Union and, to be fair, they had a point. But whatever his other failings, and there were many, he faced down the Soviets, forced them into disarmament and paved the way for the peace and prosperity of the Clinton years. But in 1984, when this record was No.1, we really believed the two tribes might go to war. Turns out it was Ronald Reagan who did the most to ensure that they didn’t.