This week is the 40th anniversary of the Able Archer NATO Exercise where it is reckoned that the Soviet Union and NATO almost started a nuclear war.

1990 an investigation by the US President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, culminating in its highly secret report “The Soviet ‘War Scare’” The detailed PFIAB report concluded that the U.S. “may have inadvertently placed our relations with the Soviet Union on a hair trigger”.

The following is an audio version of the talk I delivered to the Manchester Military History Society in October 2023. 

Documents, videos, and other extra episode information here https://coldwarconversations.com/episode316

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0:00 Introduction and overview of the episode

1:14 Comparison of the 1983 crisis and the Cuban missile crisis

2:38 Detente and the state of US/Soviet relations in the 1970s & early 80s

4:24 Introduction Ronald Reagan and his policies

5:25 Introduction to Yuri Andropov and his policies

8:56 Soviet intelligence Operation Ryan's purpose and indicators

12:49 Fleetex 83 US naval exercise appears to confirm Soviet suspicions that US is planning an attack

16:33 The downing of Korean Airlines Flight 007

22:30 Incidents soon after the Korean Airlines shootdown

26:08 Soviet early warning system warns of US missile attack

30:06 The US military intervention in Grenada

34:21 Brigadier General Leonard H Perroot's role in averting a nuclear war during Able Archer 83

41:43 Double agent's contributions to Western intelligence

51:26 Controversy about how close we came to nuclear war around Able Archer

54:30 Acknowledgement of financial supporters and continuation of Cold War conversation on Facebook

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