as europe was sleeping on november 7th
1983 the soviets began mobilizing no
troops preparing their air force and
transporting nuclear weapons to their
borders
nato agents stationed in berlin soon
noticed all the movement and uncertainty
took over earlier that day nato forces
had gathered at its headquarters in
brussels to practice an unconventional
exercise that went by the name of abel
archer
the objective of the exercise was simple
to simulate the outbreak of a global
conflict and a soviet nuclear attack
the simulation was successful and all
parties were satisfied
still nobody knew that the soviet union
truly believed it would be invaded by
nato and the world war iii was almost
about to break out
[Music]
empire of evil
in 1979 the soviet union deployed 14
ss-20 rsd-10 theater nuclear missiles
and nato responded by executing the
double track decision
this decision offered the warsaw pact a
bilateral limitation of medium and
long-range ballistic missiles
however the euro missile crisis still
escalated nato then threatened to deploy
more than 100 pershing 2 nuclear
missiles to hit lithuania ukraine or
belarusia if the ussr decided to attack
the disarmament negotiations began in
november of 1981 but were aborted by the
russians when u.s president ronald
reagan took office that year the cold
war tensions reached new heights
the president was a firm advocate of
individual freedom and as a devoted
protestant christian he was committed to
bringing down the regime that the soviet
union represented his two terms then led
to an escalation in the arms race with
the soviets serving as a deterrent for
the expansion of communism in eastern
europe and asia
during a speech delivered to the
national association of evangelicals on
march 8 1983 the president reinforced
his stance calling communism an empire
of evil
he also called out the atheist soviet
state and told his people that the
united states was not to blame for the
escalation of the cold war
reagan concluded quote i urge you to
beware the temptation of pride
the temptation of blithely declaring
yourselves above it all and label both
sides equally at fault to ignore the
facts of history and the aggressive
impulses of an evil empire to simply
call the arms race a giant
misunderstanding and thereby removed
yourself from the struggle between right
and wrong and good and evil
the speech set in motion in operation to
deploy nuclear intermediate-range
ballistic missiles in western europe
counteracting the recently deployed
soviet missiles installed at the borders
of the eastern side
tensions rise
the aggressive u.s stance against the
crumbling ussr led to a state of
paranoia and permanent alert among the
soviet military brass
from 1981 onwards the u.s and its allies
began psychological operations to test
soviet radar vulnerability and assert
the americans nuclear dominance
nato then executed a series of ground
naval and air exercises close to eastern
europe direct the soviets nerves and put
pressure on their leadership
naval operations in the norwegian baltic
and black seas caught the attention of
the russian navy and alarmed them while
american bombers would also fly directly
towards hostile airspace only to turn
back at the last moment before breaching
enemy territory
william schneider jr once the former
undersecretary of state for military
assistance and technology recalled the
soviet paranoia quote it really got to
them they didn't know what it all meant
a squadron would fly straight at soviet
airspace and other radars would light up
and units would go on alert
then at the last minute the squadron
would peel off and return home
kgb activity went rampant
all agents from all departments were
under stress to follow every footstep
and every intent of the western
counterparts to uncover their
fundamental objectives
their primary focus became quote not to
miss the military preparations of the
enemy its preparations for a nuclear
strike and not to miss the real risk of
the outbreak of war
the threat was so real and palpable the
soviet leadership especially kgb
chairman yury andrapov feared that neta
was planning a grand scale attack
similar to operation barbarossa in 1941.
anderpov a world war ii veteran and
soviet of the old guard took the threat
seriously and executed operation ryan an
intelligence program to prepare the ussr
for an imminent first strike attack
when reagan publicly announced on march
23 1983 the development of the strategic
defense initiative or star wars program
aimed at shielding the us from nuclear
attacks the tension between the two
blocks exploded
then on september 1st a tragic incident
took the world by storm and ignited even
more fire as the soviets shot down the
korean airlines flight 007
the civilian aircraft which departed
from anchorage alaska to seoul was
spotted by a soviet su-15 interceptor
after its crew had strangely deviated
from its route and breached soviet
airspace without any warning
after not getting a response from the
crew the soviets treated the aircraft as
a hostile spy aircraft and all 269
people on board perished
the incident led to an escalation of
anti-soviet sentiment but the crisis was
far from over
bruce blair former president of the
world security institute said that quote
ussr was geared to expect an attack and
to retaliate very quickly to it it was
on herotrigger alert it was very nervous
and prone to mistakes and accidents
the false alarm could not have come at a
more dangerous intense phase in u.s
soviet relations
i think that this is the closest our
country has come to accidental nuclear
war
exercise able archer 83
on november 7th 1983 over 100 military
officers gathered at the main nato
headquarters in brussels to execute a
unique military exercise
the objective was to simulate a soviet
nuclear attack and unofficially prepare
in case world war iii exploded
the exercise was called able archer 83
and it was part of the massive
conventional exercise codenamed autumn
forge
each year tens of thousands of nato
soldiers gathered to perform these
exercises but this time was different
tensions between the two blocks ran high
and the destruction of flight 07 showed
how much the soviets were ready for an
enemy attack
the fictional scenario had yugoslavia
which was not part of either nato or the
warsaw pact wanting to join the western
nations
fearing that this move would have a
domino effect on other eastern european
countries that would decide to join nato
and leave the warsaw pact russia firmly
said no and sent their armored cavalry
into yugoslavia
afterward the soviets would invade the
rest of western europe pushing back nato
forces before the organization
authorized nuclear missiles to stop the
enemy's advance
the war game then concluded with nato
wiping out the city of kiev to warn the
russians that they were serious and
ready to escalate the conflict
ground troops were deployed during the
drill u.s bases practiced weapons drills
and aircraft flew sorties
additionally nato used encrypted
communications and long hours of radio
silence to disorient the soviets
after the drill the nano officers
congratulated themselves after a job
well done but the soviets and the nato
agents stationed at the devil's mountain
in berlin were on high alert
also known as field station berlin the
devil's mountain was a hidden spy base
in the forest of germany's capital
here agents spied upon the soviets in
the global surveillance operation and
monitored every soviet move of around
eastern germany and other parts of
europe
however during operation able archer
something unexpected happened
not a drill
because of the inherent paranoia of the
time the soviets believed that nato's
able archer exercise was a real threat
and began a large-scale military
operation to retaliate
communication points across east germany
and eastern europe suddenly lit up and
the agents in berlin thought it was a
training exercise they didn't know the
soviet's intention at the time and spent
the whole night trying to figure out
what they were up to
world war iii was about to break out
because of a single military exercise
and nobody knew about it even the united
states intelligence
it was the closest time the world came
to a global catastrophe going back to
the cuban missile crisis of 1962.
the soviets mobilized entire divisions
transported nuclear weapons to their
borders and mustered their air force to
attack critical targets across western
europe
fortunately they eventually realized
what had really happened and stopped
short of attacking
it wasn't until the 1990s that
declassified information from the us
government showed how close the world
came to a nuclear war after the
competition of april archer 83.
one of the many disclosed documents came
from minister of defense dmitry ustinov
who wrote about the event after a few
days had passed
the dangerous nature of the military
exercises conducted by the u.s and nato
in recent years commands attention these
exercises are characterized by an
enormous scope and they are becoming
increasingly difficult to distinguish
from a real deployment of armed forces
for aggression
he concluded his statement by saying
quote we are also obliged to draw
appropriate conclusions from the fact
that the us has deployed armed forces
groupings prepared for war near the
soviet union's borders and has created
control systems for them
we have to reckon with the ever-growing
scope and dangerous nature of the
strategic offensive forces exercises
conducted by the american command as
well as have exercises conducted in the
nato framework
the soviet war scare was real and one of
several reasons the us and the ussr
signed a nuclear arms treaty in 1987.
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think of the singular war game that
could have resulted in the third global
conflict of the 20th century