Contrary to the hindsight-ridden narrative of the Cold War that is common nowadays, according to which it had already wound down by the 1980s

I'm ... boggling. Your statment is not implausible, but do you have links to such assertions?

Really, we thought we were likely to die at any time with no warning. When the Soviet Union collapsed and the Cold War was over, there was a zeitgeist of "... Um. OK. We're going to live. I have to plan now. Oh, God."

And as far as I can tell, the anxiety was there right up to the moment of collapse. Despite Gorbachev's excellent and calming media image in the final few years of it.

it is often told by people who lived through the climax of the Cold War, i.e. the period of the Cuban Missile Crisis

It is relevant, I think, that the "we" I speak of were young and powerless.