Nate Jones presented his book "The Secret History of the 1983 Able Archer 83 Nuclear War Scare"
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- Published: Thursday, 15 June 2017 16:04
Nate Jones, the Director of the Freedom of Information Act Project for the National Security Archive at George Washington University and the Odessa State University's Nuclear Proliferation International History Project Research Fellow, presented his book "Able Archer 83: The Secret History of NATO Nuclear Exercise that Pushed the World Closer to Nuclear War in 1983" in the premises of OdCNP.
Declassified documents show that in November 1983, Soviet nuclear forces went on an "unprecedented" alert in response to a realistic NATO nuclear exercise called Able Archer 83. After launching Operation RYaN to nervously monitor NATO nuclear activity, Soviet intelligence agencies in Western Europe received flash telegrams reporting alarming activity on U.S. bases. In response, the Soviets began readying their nuclear forces in preparation for a western nuclear attack.
The tensions decreased after a US Air Force Officer Leonard Perroots chose not to escalate the posture of NATO forces in the face of the Soviet Alert. But the results had an impact on the Cold War and US-Soviet relations. According to declassified documents, President Reagan described the events as "really scary" and they had an impact on his subsequent rapprochement with the Soviet Union.