Able Archer 83

The 1983 NATO exercise that Soviet leaders misread as possible war preparation

Overview

Able Archer 83, a NATO command post exercise in November 1983 that rehearsed nuclear release procedures, alarmed Soviet leadership primed by the RYAN intelligence program to expect a first strike. Some Warsaw Pact forces reportedly raised readiness, and reporting from the double agent Oleg Gordievsky conveyed the depth of Moscow's fear to the West, which quietly softened the exercise's final phase. Documents declassified in 2013 confirmed how sharp the misreading had been. The episode is studied as a defining near miss of the late Cold War.