Able Archer 83

"Able Archer" redirects here. For the general article on the annual exercise, see Exercise Able Archer.

Able Archer 83 was a military exercise conducted by NATO that took place in November 1983, as part of an annual exercise. It simulated a period of heightened nuclear tensions between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, leading to concerns that it could have been mistaken for a real attack by the Soviet Union. The exercise is considered by some to be one of the closest moments the world came to nuclear war during the Cold War.[1][2] The purpose of the exercise, like previous years, was to simulate a period of conflict escalation, culminating in the U.S. military attaining a simulated DEFCON 1 coordinated nuclear attack.[3] The five-day exercise, which involved NATO commands throughout Western Europe, was coordinated from the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE) headquarters in Casteau, Belgium.

The 1983 exercise, which began on November 7, 1983, introduced several new elements not seen in previous years, including a new, unique format of coded communication, radio silences, and the participation of heads of government. This increase in realism, combined with tense relations between the United States and the Soviet Union and the anticipated arrival of Pershing II nuclear missiles in Europe, led some members of the Soviet Politburo and military to believe that Able Archer 83 was a ruse of war, obscuring preparations for a genuine nuclear first strike.[3][4][5][6] In response, the Soviet Union readied their nuclear forces and placed air units in East Germany and Poland on alert.[7][8] The Soviet 4th Air Army began loading nuclear warheads onto combat planes in preparation for war.[9] The apparent threat of nuclear war ended when U.S. Lieutenant General Leonard H. Perroots advised against responding to the Warsaw Pact military activity, which ended with the conclusion of the exercise on November 11.[10][11][12]

The exercise attracted public attention in 2015 when the President's Intelligence Advisory Board's 1990 report on the exercise was declassified.[13] Some scholars have argued that Able Archer 83 was one of the times when the world has come closest to nuclear war since the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962.[14][15] The declassification of related documents in 2021 supported this notion.[9] Other scholars have disputed that Able Archer 83 almost led to nuclear war.[16][17]

  1. ^ Stephen J. Cimbala (2002). The Dead Volcano: The Background and Effects of Nuclear War Complacency. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 92. ISBN 9780275973872.
  2. ^ Nate Jones. "The Able Archer 83 Sourcebook". National Security Archive.
  3. ^ a b Benjamin B. Fischer (March 17, 2007). "A Cold War Conundrum: The 1983 Soviet War Scare". Central Intelligence Agency. Archived from the original on January 14, 2009. Retrieved January 13, 2009.
  4. ^ Andrew and Gordievsky, Comrade Kryuchkov's Instructions, 85–7.
  5. ^ Beth Fischer, Reagan Reversal, 123, 131.
  6. ^ Pry, War Scare, 37–9.
  7. ^ Oberdorfer, A New Era, p. 66.
  8. ^ SNIE 11–10–84, "Implications of Recent Soviet Military-Political Activities", Central Intelligence Agency, May 18, 1984.
  9. ^ a b Kaplan, Fred (April 27, 2022). "The World Came Much Closer to Nuclear War Than We Ever Realized". Slate Magazine. Retrieved April 27, 2022.
  10. ^ Andrew and Gordievsky, Comrade Kryuchkov's Instructions, 87–8.
  11. ^ Pry, War Scare, 43–4.
  12. ^ "Andøyrakett satte Russland i krigsberedskap" [Andøyrakett put Russia in war preparedness] (in Norwegian). Archived from the original on October 25, 2014.
  13. ^ "The Week the World Almost Ended". Slate Magazine. June 7, 2017. Archived from the original on June 27, 2017. Retrieved April 27, 2022.
  14. ^ Roberts, Sam (November 9, 2015). "NATO War Games Unwittingly Put Soviets and U.S. on 'Hair Trigger' in '83, Analysis Suggests". The New York Times. Retrieved April 27, 2022.
  15. ^ Nichols, Tom (August 9, 2014). "Five Ways Nuclear Armageddon Was Almost Unleashed". The National Interest.
  16. ^ Miles, Simon (August 1, 2020). "The War Scare That Wasn't: Able Archer 83 and the Myths of the Second Cold War". Journal of Cold War Studies. 22 (3): 86–118. doi:10.1162/jcws_a_00952. ISSN 1520-3972. S2CID 221117442.
  17. ^ "H-Diplo Article Review 1024- "The War Scare That Wasn't" | H-Diplo | H-Net". networks.h-net.org. Retrieved March 17, 2021.