Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
The riveting untold story of the world on the brink of nuclear war over a misunderstanding between the US and the Soviet Union about a wargames exercise
1983 was a dangerous year. During these latter days of the Cold War, tensions were no less taut between its two key players than they were at the conflict's inception. The United States was becoming increasingly aggressive in its stance towards the Soviet Union, and both sides were drafting countless plans in order to both attack and defend against their adversary. When the US decided to initiate a wargames exercise, the USSR, having previously formulated a strategy to launch an attack under cover of just such an exercise, assumed their rival was trying to best them at their own game. This misinterpretation by the Soviets led to a year-long tennis match of the two superpowers ratcheting up their readiness for the conflict that both sides felt was inevitable. The fingers of their respective leaders inched ever closer to their nuclear triggers, and the world inched ever closer to the brink of annihilation.
Historian Taylor Downing, utilizing newly declassified documents and numerous interviews with players on both sides of the ordeal, reveals an extraordinary and little-known Cold War story that reads much like a thriller and is all the more frightening for it. Now with an aggressive regime in Moscow led by an ex-KGB agent, a new administration in the White House, and the prospect of a new Cold War very much a reality, this is the time to tell the story of a world on the precipice of great disaster, and the even greater story of how it fought its way back from the edge.
Synopsis
A riveting, thrilling account of 1983--the year tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union nearly brought the world to the point of nuclear Armageddon 1983 was a dangerous year. In the United States, President Reagan increased defense spending and launched the "Star Wars" Strategic Defense Initiative. When a Soviet plane shot down a Korean civilian jet, Reagan described it as "a crime against humanity." And Moscow grew increasingly concerned about America's language and behavior. Would they attack? The temperature rose, fast. In November the West launched a wargame exercise, codenamed "Abel Archer," that looked to the Soviets just like the real thing. With the Soviet leader Andropov's finger inching ever closer to the nuclear button, the world was truly at the brink.
In 1983, Taylor Downing draws on previously unpublished interviews and over a thousand pages of secret documents that have recently been released by Washington to tell the gripping, astonishing story that was almost the end of the world. Sometimes fact is stranger than fiction.
Synopsis
A riveting, real-life thriller about 1983--the year tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union nearly brought the world to the point of nuclear Armageddon The year 1983 was an extremely dangerous one--more dangerous than 1962, the year of the Cuban Missile Crisis. In the United States, President Reagan vastly increased defense spending, described the Soviet Union as an "evil empire," and launched the "Star Wars" Strategic Defense Initiative to shield the country from incoming missiles. Seeing all this, Yuri Andropov, the paranoid Soviet leader, became convinced that the US really meant to attack the Soviet Union and he put the KGB on high alert, looking for signs of an imminent nuclear attack.
When a Soviet plane shot down a Korean civilian jet, Reagan described it as "a crime against humanity." And Moscow grew increasingly concerned about America's language and behavior. Would they attack? The temperature rose fast. In November the West launched a wargame exercise, codenamed "Abel Archer," that looked to the Soviets like the real thing. With Andropov's finger inching ever closer to the nuclear button, the world was truly on the brink.
This is an extraordinary and largely unknown Cold War story of spies and double agents, of missiles being readied, intelligence failures, misunderstandings, and the panic of world leaders. With access to hundreds of astonishing new documents, Taylor Downing tells for the first time the gripping but true story of how near the world came to nuclear war in 1983.