Able Archer Terrified Soviet Commanders

In November 1983, NATO ran Able Archer 83, a command exercise that rehearsed escalation from conventional warfare to a simulated nuclear strike. Its unusually realistic procedures led Soviet leaders to fear that the exercise might conceal preparations for a real attack, prompting heightened alerts for nuclear-capable aircraft in East Germany and Poland. A 1990 investigation by the US President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board concluded that the exercise may have placed US-Soviet relations on a hair trigger. The board's 109-page report, titled The Soviet War Scare, remained classified until 2015.

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