Able Archer 83: The Secret History of the NATO Exercise That Almost Triggered Nuclear WarNate Jones In November 1983, Soviet nuclear forces went on high alert. After months nervously watching increasingly assertive NATO military posturing, Soviet intelligence agencies in Western Europe received flash telegrams reporting alarming activity on U.S. bases. In response, the Soviets began planning for a countdown to a nuclear first strike by NATO on Eastern Europe. And then Able Archer 83, a vast NATO war game exercise that modeled a Soviet attack on NATO allies, ended. What the West didn't know at the time was that the Soviets thought Operation Able Archer 83 was real and were actively preparing for a surprise missile attack from NATO. This close scrape with Armageddon was largely unknown until last October when the U.S. government released a ninety-four-page presidential analysis of Able Archer that the National Security Archive had spent over a decade trying to declassify. Able Archer 83 is based upon more than a thousand pages of declassified documents that archive staffer Nate Jones has pried loose from several U.S. government agencies and British archives, as well as from formerly classified Soviet Politburo and KGB files, vividly recreating the atmosphere that nearly unleashed nuclear war. |
Contents
Presidents Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board Report The Soviet War | |
CIA Studies in Intelligence Article by Benjamin Fischer The 1983 | 95 |
KGB Chairman Yuri Andropov to General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev | 109 |
Memorandum of Conversation Between General Secretary Yuri Andropov | 115 |
Memorandum for National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane from | 11 |
UK Ministry of Defence Soviet Union Concern About a Surprise Nuclear | 21 |
Central Intelligence Agency Special National Intelligence Estimate | 28 |
Central Intelligence Agency Memorandum for the President Vice | 41 |
Reagans Handwritten Addition of Ivan and Anya to His January | 56 |
Notes | 70 |
Index | 111 |
U S Army Intelligence and Security Command Daily INTSUM November | 131 |
Other editions - View all
Able Archer 83: The Secret History of the NATO Exercise that Almost ... Nate Jones No preview available - 2016 |
Common terms and phrases
1983 War Scare Able Archer 83 abºut actiºns aircraft alert alsº American analysts Andropov arms British Cold Cold War cºuld danger declassified defense deployment Exercise Able Archer fear fºr fºrces Foreign Intelligence Advisory frºm GAMMA WNINTEL NOFORN Harriman HHIHTE:L Hºt hºw hºwever Intelligence Advisory Board Intelligence Agency intº launch Matlock mºre Moscow Nate Jones National Security NATO nºt November nºw nuclear attack nuclear strike nuclear war nuclear weapons officers ºfficials ºil Oleg Gordievsky ºne ºnly Operation RYaN ºperatiºns ORCON ºther ºur ºut ºver Pershing Pershing II Politburo pºlitical President’s Foreign Intelligence prºvide Reagan Presidential Library relatiºns Robert McFarlane Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan Presidential Secretary shºuld Shultz SNIE ſº Soviet leaders Soviet Union Soviet War Scare strategic thiſ thºse Top Secret twº UMBRA GAMMA WNINTEL Uniºn United USSR warning Warsaw Pact whº wºuld Yuri Andropov