Able Archer 83 was a ten-day North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) command post exercise starting on November 2, 1983. Some historians have since argued that Able Archer 83 was one of the times when the world has come closest to nuclear war since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962.
Consortium News:
A Close Call on Doomsday
The risk of nuclear extermination is real, especially at times of revved-up tensions between the U.S. and Russia, when a political miscalculation or a technical mistake could prove disastrous, a danger that pushed the two sides to the brink of war in 1983, as ex-CIA analyst Melvin A. Goodman recalls.
Global Research
US, NATO Powers Intensify Preparations for Nuclear War
The NATO military alliance is preparing to implement a more aggressive nuclear weapons strategy in response to alleged “Russian aggression,” according to NATO sources cited by the Guardian Wednesday evening.
The Soviet "War Scare" Declassified and For Real
All-Source Intelligence Report finds US-Soviet Nuclear Relations on "Hair Trigger" in 1983
Alert Air Force General acted "out of instinct, not informed guidance" to Stop Escalation of the Crisis
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| The Able Archer 83 Sourcebook |
The 1983 War Scare: "The Last Paroxysm" of the Cold War Part I: Soviet "Huffing and Puffing?" "Crying Wolf?" "Rattling Pots and Pans?" or "A real worry that we could come into conflict through miscalculation?"
The 1983 War Scare: "The Last Paroxysm" of the Cold
War Part II: "Blue's use of nuclear weapons did not stop Orange's aggression."
The 1983 War Scare: "The Last Paroxysm" of the Cold War Part III: "Rather Stunning Array of Indicators" of the Soviet Reaction to Able Archer 83 had "A Dimension of Genuineness ... Often Not Reflected in Intelligence Issuances."
http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/nukevault/ablearcher/