
In 1983 ‘war scare,’ Soviet leadership feared nuclear surprise attack by U.S - smacktoward
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
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cstross
This isn't new; it's been known about in the west for decades -- the outcome
of Yuri Andropov's Operation RYaN, and the way it coincided with the Able
Archer exercises and the shooting down of flight KAL 007.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RYAN](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RYAN)

(Looking back on 1983, I can only shake my head in wonderment that we
survived, collectively and individually.)

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smacktoward
Yeah, I know the basic story of the Able Archer war scare is not news, but I
submitted this story because (1) it's a good overview of the incident for
those who aren't familiar with it and (2) it includes information from a
recently declassified report that shows the US government acknowledging how
close things came to going off the rails, which I found interesting because
previous government statements had been more dismissive.

~~~
fortyseven
Good read! Thanks for posting it. :-)

