2. Able Archer 83
The combination of Reaganite rhetoric and Soviet paranoia in the early 1980s conspired to make a NATO wide scale military exercise called Able Archer 83 a very close trigger for nuclear war between the superpowers. Based in the Belgian Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE), Able Archer was a huge operation - simulating escalating tensions between the two superpowers - culminating in a nuclear war. The operation included the trial of new communication and code systems, participation with Heads of State and a simulated DEFCON 1 alert. The Soviets' imaginations went into overdrive. Relations between the USA and USSR were at a very low point in 1983 and many believed that Able Archer was a cover in order for the West to launch a war on the USSR. Especially as Western Europe was about to receive Pershing II nuclear missiles. Highly suspicious of the operation, the Soviets believed that it would be better to launch a preemptive strike - if the West was going to attack. According to one Soviet insider, the USSR started arming their nuclear weapons and war was only averted because they entered the wrong communication codes. Now that is scary. Apparently Reagan wanted to strengthen the West as much as possible and then turn his policy from antipathy towards the USSR to one of negotiation in which he held the military upper hand. Able Archer was an exercise to achieve these aims. In his memoirs, Reagan said he was surprised that the USSR was so scared of a nuclear strike. The USSR president - Andropov - was an old ailing man at the time of Able Archer 83 and the lack of clear leadership must have made the situation even more tense for the USSR. According to most observers, it is the closest the Cold War ever came to an exchange of nuclear missiles since the Cuban Missile Crisis - the grand daddy of all Cold War nuclear oblivion scenarios.