In 1983 ‘War Scare,’ Soviet Leadership Feared Nuclear Surprise Attack By U.S.
By David E. Hoffman October 24
A nuclear weapons command exercise by NATO in November 1983 prompted fear in the leadership of the Soviet Union that the maneuvers were a cover for a nuclear surprise attack by the United States, triggering a series of unparalleled Soviet military responses, according to a top-secret U.S. intelligence review that has just been declassified.
In 1983, we may have inadvertently placed our relations with the Soviet Union on a hair trigger, the review concluded.
That autumn has long been regarded as one of the most tense moments of the Cold War, coming after the Soviet Union shot down a South Korean civilian airliner in September and as the West was preparing to deploy Pershing II intermediate-range and ground-launched cruise missiles in Europe in November. But there has been a long-running debate about whether the period known as the war scare was a moment of genuine danger or a period of bluster for propaganda purposes.
The review concluded that for Soviet leaders, the war scare was real, and that U.S. intelligence postmortems did not take it seriously enough.
more...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/in-1983-war-scare-soviet-leadership-feared-nuclear-surprise-attack-by-us/2015/10/24/15a289b4-7904-11e5-a958-d889faf561dc_story.html
PeoViejo
(2,178 posts)Diclotican
(5,095 posts)Purveyor
Thank you for the find - an interesting find it indeed was - about the reality of the fear many in Russia had about a war with the west - it was maybe not that dangrous empire to begin with - if the posiblity of war could give them lack of nightsleep for weeks at the time...
Diclotican
Tomay
(58 posts)back in fall of 1983. I've heard about this crisis previously, but it's very obscure for some reason; possibly because it would make Saint Ronnie look bad if it was widely known that his saber-rattling nearly caused the end of the world.
Reportedly Soviet leader Andropov had the nuclear "football" out and was ready to launch until, at the last minute, he was informed by a Soviet spy in NATO's staff that the exercise was in fact just an exercise, not cover for a first strike, as the Soviets feared was the case.
The really odd thing about the whole "Able Archer" crisis was that it was a "one-sided" crisis, in that NATO was totally unaware that the Soviets were on the brink of ordering a nuclear attack; NATO had no idea how panicked the Soviet leadership was by the introduction of US Pershing missiles to Europe. The Soviets feared the Pershings would wipe out their leadership in the first 15 minutes of war as there would be no time for them to get to their shelters.
When Reagan learned about the near-breakout of WW3 months after the event, he was amazed that the Soviets were so alarmed and thought the US was about to attack them. He supposedly became more willing to negotiate with the Soviets after this event.