Reagan, Andropov, and a World on the Brink
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4155255 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Joshua Cochran |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 106 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 266-267 |
| Publication date | 2019-06-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of American History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8723 • E-ISSN: 1945-2314 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1093/jahist/jaz322 |
| OpenAlex | W2947754402 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
On November 9, 1983, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (Nato) war game Able Archer 83 neared its conclusion. For this scenario, war planners had devised a hypothetical attack on Western Europe by Warsaw Pact nations, which slowly escalated over several days. During the exercises, Nato military strategists wrestled with questions of nuclear readiness and planned responses for a potential full-scale invasion. Despite the events being an exercise, Soviet officials still monitored the game, believing it might be a cover for a real attack by Nato forces, and considered whether they ought to strike preemptively. Taylor Downing brings a filmmaker's panache for storytelling to build tension throughout 1983. Using personal interviews, declassified documents collected by the National Security Archive, and key participants' memoirs, his book's early chapters capture how perceptions deeply embedded within the American and Soviet bureaucracies precipitated the nuclear brinksmanship of 1983. The new Soviet premier Yuri Andropov had headed the Kgb (the Soviet secret service) and spearheaded Operation RYaN, where spies gathered intelligence pertaining to a possible nuclear launch
Alliance · Bureaucracy · Economic history · Memoir · Military service · National security · North Atlantic Treaty · Nuclear weapon · Political science · Politics · Treaty · World War II · Historical Geopolitical and Social Dynamics · History · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law · Russia and Soviet political economy
| Citations per year | 0.43 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2019 - 2023 (5) |
| Highly cited | No |