It’s very subtly implied in the movie that the reason that China lost over 400 million people is because the soviets actually launched a nuclear strike on China when the war began. You’ll notice that when Tanner says “600 million screaming chinamen” one of the wolverines responds “I thought there was a billion screaming chinamen” Tanner then says “there were” and then proceeds to throw some whiskey on the fire causing it to flare up aggressively, resembling a nuclear fireball.

To answer your question, "How REALISTIC is the Soviet INVASION in Red Dawn?"...about 6 million to the 9 millionth power more realistic than North Korea invading the US in 2012

As goofy as the scene of the Russian getting shot with an arrow is, it kind of seems like a pretty realistic depiction of what it would be like to be shot in the back with a kid's sporting bow lol.

In 2000, my first first day of fourth grade, my 70 year old teacher told an entire class of 9 year olds to turn around and look out the giant bay window behind us. And then she proceeded to tell us that at any moment the Russians could drop soldiers down and they would march in here, shoot her in the head, and take over the school.

It wasn't until I finally watched Red Dawn, years later, that I thought back to that moment and understood just how bad of a teacher she really was.

A couple years earlier (1982) there was a mini-series on NBC called World War 3 where the Soviets send a Spetsnaz group into Alaska to capture part of the pipeline to force the USA to end its grain embargo. A more realistic scenario than a full scale invasion

In 1984 I was serving on a NATO country submarine tracking and hunting Soviet subs in the North Atlantic and area seas. It was the Cold War but often felt rather hot to me.

I would add that 7 days to the Rhine was not THE Soviet war plan, but A plan, for a specific scenario, out of probably hundreds. It’s even mentioned here, that it was more of a last-ditch measure if NATO rendered Poland in-passable, locking the Soviet reserves out of the fight. In that scenario the only hope they had was to quickly smash NATO with the GSFG and Warsaw Pact armies before they ran out of supplies.
The USSR/Warsaw Pact had a massive numerical, and in many areas until the mid-1980s, qualitative advantage over NATO forces in Europe. Using tactical nukes would have been a detriment, as their large armored formations were more vulnerable to a NATO counterstrike than NATO forces. It’s likely they would have tried to leverage their advantage without immediately going nuclear.
That being said, NATO acknowledged that they were on the losing side at the time, and planned to fight delaying actions hoping that the war could be ended diplomatically. If that didn’t work or the Soviets achieved a breakthrough, they would use tactical nuclear weapons.
Things started to change in the mid/early 80s, with NATO seriously planning on putting up a real fight, implementing AirLand battle doctrine and fielding weapons running on advanced electronics that the Soviets could not mass produce. By 1989, NATO had the clear advantage.

I was one of the actual paratroopers that were hired to do the jumps for the invasion of this movie.  I knew some things about the actors and actresses and became friendly with most of them.  In the movie, I was the paratrooper who in the first take (not used) to shoot Frank McRae (the teacher) during the invasion of the school. You are correct that the movie reflected the political climate at the time.  Myself and a few other paratroopers who jumped also were active duty Air Force members.  We were trained on how the Soviets planned and invaded other countries as well as their tactics on the ground.  We also knew that a soviet funded group was active in the Albuquerque region (this was not public knowledge at the time while this film was shot in Las Vegas, NM).  The government and the military were not aware of this film until a couple of CIA agents saw one of the mock T-72 tanks.

To be fair, the Soviet Invasion in Red Dawn is stopped halfway down the Canadian West Coast, and the armored attack through Mexico only pushes as far as it does because of the flat terrain.  Not much more ground is taken, and the invaders are pushed out after only a couple years of fighting.  We see their best possible plan go up in flames because they don't really understand America.

R.I.P. Patrick Swayze, Powers Boothe, Ron O'Neal, Harry Dean Stanton, Frank McRae and Lane Smith. Great actors all of them.

I first saw Red Dawn when I was a junior in high school, probably; and even at that age, I thought it was a pretty farfetched scenario. However, I can't think of another protracted war movie portraying World War III, so I think it's interesting and enjoyable on that account, if nothing else.

I still prefer Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising if only because it felt a smidge more logical such as one of the POVs being a weather officer in Iceland trying to survive after the Soviets land forces on the island

I think the plot from Octopussy was a pretty good one for WW111 in Europe.  The idea of a power-hungry Soviet general using an accidental nuke dentation to force the West to abandon nuclear deterrence in Europe so he could role in with conventional forces and take over was pretty cool to me.  I also like the humor: Tourist, "Are you with our group?" Bond, "No, ma'am I'm with the economy tour!"   That still makes me laugh.

I was 12 years old when this movie came out, and actually living in NATO member Turkey where my father was stationed.  Didn't get to see it in the theater on base, but as soon as a video taped copy made it into our hands it became a favorite.  I did a lot of reading on the geopolitics of the time and on military equipment & strategy as I grew up, and eventually wound up enlisting in the US Army as an intelligence analyst.

Really up until recently, the only aspect of the Soviet invasion that I found unrealistic was that their ICBMs were "a helluva lot more accurate than we thought".  Over the past few years it's dawned on me (pun 100% intended) that the most unrealistic aspect of it was the United States allowing Mexico to fall, or even to descend into a state where it was unable or unwilling to deny transit to Cuban forces.  Particularly with Reagan in office, we would've invaded Mexico ourselves long before it got to that point.  They also completely ignored the Soviets' Southern flank, in the form of Turkey and Pakistan (both firmly allied with the US at the time) or even a continued insurgency in Afghanistan.

What I do continue to love about this movie, even to this day, is the attention to detail given to the "Soviet" equipment used in Red Dawn.  It's not even remotely difficult now to get your hands on all the Soviet/Russian stuff you want for a movie, but in 1984 none of those things were available in the west beyond AK-47s.  John Milius and his team did an incredible job with the mockups, far better than the US Army was using when I was a member of the opposing forces at Fort Irwin a decade later.

"Red Dawn" is one of my favorites from childhood. Funny thing about that movie, "First Blood Part 2," and "Rambo 3" the Soviet "Hind" gun ships in those movies were actually French Puma helicopters.

It’s John Milius’ writing and direction that makes it. The overgrown kid and history nerd in him was dedicated to making movies as gritty and believable as possible.

Me and my friends first saw this movie when it came out in the theater. We were 14 years old. It scared the crap out of us. We were all convinced that we were going to become our own "Wolverines" group before the decade was out.

I was a paratrooper from 1980-1983. This movie was amusing

I thought RED DAWN was awesome and realistic until I joined the US Army five years later...There I learned the Soviets lacked any logistical ability to supply an army across the ocean...They could barely supply an army across the Soviet border into Afghanistan

13:29 It's also implied in the film that Russia nuked China accounting for the massive losses. When asked what happened Powers Boothe's character throws his drink in the campfire causing a mini fireball/mushroom cloud.