Hal Lindsey, author of numerous fiction and non-fiction books, wrote The Late, Great Planet Earth as a contribution to the non-fiction pre-millennialist dispensationalist body of literature. He published it in 1970 after writing it at the beginning of the Cold War. He took the context of the Cold War and applied it to Biblical scripture, stating that the events of history, the Cold War specifically, fulfilled Biblical prophecy.
For example, he pointed to the restoration of Israel as a state in 1948 as the symbolic restoration of Israel prophesied in the Bible. The central theme to Lindsey's work was that he believed that Russia is Gog, the invader of the north about which Ezekiel prophesies.
Lindsey writes in his polemic that tribulation will soon follow, including plagues, wars, and famines; following which Jesus will appear at a period in dispensational history called the Rapture.
His work was a popular interpretation of the Bible and sold over 15 million copies in the 1970s.
