Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War's campaign is set during the Cold War in the early 1980s. It follows Green Beret turned CIA SAD/SOG officer Russell Adler (Bruce Thomas) and his mission to stop an international espionage threat known as Perseus (William Salyers) in 1981. The story is inspired by actual events.

A black operation or black op is a covert or clandestine operation by a government agency, a military unit or a paramilitary organization; it can include activities by private companies or groups. Key features of a black operation are that it is secret and it is not attributable to the organization carrying it out.