Photo credit Photo by Staff Sgt. Brittany Murphy
* NATO forces carried out Able Archer exercise to simulate a nuclear attack
* But Soviet leaders feared the exercise was cover for a genuine offensive
* They readied fighter bombers with 'warloads' and were on 30-minute alert
Newly released US intelligence files show how close the Soviet Union came to launching a nuclear attack during a NATO weapons exercise in 1983.
The Communist bloc put fighter bombers strapped with nuclear bombs on high alert in East Germany during a 'war scare' prompted by a NATO exercise in Western Europe called Able Archer in November 1983.
Soviet leader Yuri Andropov made 'preparations for the immediate use of nuclear weapons' and forces were on 30-minute standby to destroy enemy targets in what was one of the tensest moments of the Cold War.
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WNU Editor: The declassified documents are here ....
href="https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/aa83/2021-02-17/able-archer-war-scare-potentially-disastrous">Able Archer War Scare “Potentially Disastrous” (National Security Archive).
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